earnings
Americannoun
plural noun
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money or other payment earned
-
the profits of an enterprise
Etymology
Origin of earnings
before 1050; Middle English erning, Old English earning, earnung merit, pay. See earn 1, -ing 1, -s 3
Explanation
Earnings are the amount of money you make from doing a job. You'll be a lot more excited about babysitting when you learn your earnings will be more than generous. Most earnings come from work that you've done, although money you earn from an investment can also be called earnings. Any financial profit or gain you make go into the earnings category, since you earn that money, whether through work, luck, or intelligence. The Proto-Germanic root, *aznon, means "do harvest work."
Vocabulary lists containing earnings
One Idea, Part 1
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Century 21 Accounting, 9e, Chapters 11-14
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s “very clear” from recent earnings that there’s a compute shortage, Goldberg said.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 24, 2026
Currently, the average analyst price target for GE Vernova stock is $1,130 a share, according to FactSet, up about $161 since the first-quarter earnings report.
From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026
It’s “very clear” from recent earnings that there’s a compute shortage, Goldberg said.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 24, 2026
Wall Street earnings estimates are still too low following the company’s first-quarter earnings report, he says.
From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026
“Your first earnings, so you get to choose.”
From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
