income

[in-kuhm]

noun

1. revenue received for goods or services, or from other sources, as rents or investments.

   For years, her only source of income was the small number of stocks her father left her.

2. the money, or amount of money, received from one’s employment.

   a household with three incomes;

   a healthcare worker with an income that hasn’t increased in five years.

   Synonyms: earnings, wages, salary, return, gains, annuity, interest
   Antonyms: expenditure, outgo

3. something that comes in as an addition or increase, especially by chance.

4. Archaic.,  a coming in.

income

/ ˈɪnkəm, ˈɪnkʌm /

noun

1. the amount of monetary or other returns, either earned or unearned, accruing over a given period of time

2. receipts; revenue

3. rare,  an inflow or influx

income

1. The amount of money received during a period of time in exchange for labor or services, from the sale of goods or property, or as a profit from financial investments.

Other Word Forms

• incomeless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of income¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English: literally, “that which has come in,” noun use of incomen (past participle of incomen “to come in”), Old English incuman; in, come

Word History and Origins

Origin of income¹

C13 (in the sense: arrival, entrance): from Old English incumen a coming in

Example Sentences

Some business owners say the prolonged protests have disrupted commercial activity and cut into their income, especially for those in city centre neighbourhoods around the University of Antananarivo, from where the protests have been organised.

Read more on BBC

While there’s not much surprise to the numbers, which essentially inch up to account for inflation, you can start to cement a plan now for your future income and the taxes you pay.

Read more on MarketWatch

The September inflation data also helps determine the income thresholds below which taxpayers can contribute to a Roth IRA and fully or partly deduct IRA contributions on their income tax returns.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Those activities generate high income, but the BDCs also generate high expenses—hundreds of times higher than, say, an exchange-traded fund that invests in bonds at a total annual cost of 0.03%.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

IGC says that farmers turn to charcoal production as an alternate source of income when droughts occur and crops fail.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• cash 
• compensation 
• earnings 
• interest 
• livelihood 
• pay 
• proceeds 
• profit 
• revenue 
• royalty 
• salary 
• wage