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.
“That’s why the upside in stocks eventually hinges upon stocks’ ability to deliver on increasingly rosy earnings expectations — not just for the next quarter or two, but for the quarters to come.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
“Investors have decided that earnings are what matter, and earnings do matter,” said Sosnick at Interactive Brokers.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
Sharp downturns tend to stick when they’re related to disappointing earnings as opposed to something else.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The estimated third-quarter earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 stands at 28.9%, which would mark the third straight quarter of growth above 25%, according to FactSet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
I had with the day’s earnings bought as usual one rice cake which I now broke to hand around.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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.
