paper profit
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of paper profit
First recorded in 1890–95
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.
The government’s $11.1 billion Intel investment in August 2025 yielded a $40 billion paper profit as shares rose nearly 370%.
From Barron's • May 8, 2026
By 1986, they had a paper profit of $850 million on their Disney stake.
From Washington Post • Sep. 28, 2015
And this July, when Hilton’s stock closed at $24.80, Gray and Nassetta had officially transformed Hilton into the most lucrative private equity deal ever, with a paper profit of $12 billion.
From BusinessWeek • Sep. 11, 2014
By the close those gains were trimmed back to 9.4 percent, but Berkshire was still sitting on a paper profit of nearly $3 billion.
From Reuters • Aug. 26, 2011
Teasing you along, letting you pile up a little paper profit, then bang!
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
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.
