mutual fund

American  

noun

1. an investment company that issues shares continuously and is obligated to repurchase them from shareholders on demand.

---

mutual fund British  

noun

1. British equivalent: unit trust.  an investment trust that issues units for public sale, the holders of which are creditors and not shareholders with their interests represented by a trust company independent of the issuing agency

---

mutual fund Cultural  

1. A company organized for the purpose of making investments. A mutual fund gets its capital stock from private individual investors, who, in effect, allow the mutual fund to decide where to invest their money.

---

Etymology

Origin of mutual fund

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

This being the “information age,” it would be understandable if investors sometimes feel inundated with too much information to wade through about the stocks in their mutual fund portfolios.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 8, 2026

Closed-end funds offer advantages that can work well for investors over the long term since this fund type allows for more flexibility in portfolio management than a traditional open-ended mutual fund.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026

Fidelity Investments, the big brokerage and mutual fund firm, long has had a rule protecting its small retail clients from plunging into initial public stock offerings while the shares were still subject to IPO-related hype.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026

A two-month stock rally powered by chip companies has helped the average U.S.-stock mutual fund or exchange-traded fund to a total return of 11.5% so far in 2026.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026

“The market found him,” says the Philadelphia mutual fund manager.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

• bond fund
• closed-end fund
• investment fund
• retirement plan