payday

American  

[pey-dey] / ˈpeɪˌdeɪ /

noun

paydays plural

1. the day on which wages are given, payment is made, etc.

2. Informal. a day or period during which a great deal of money, success, fame, etc., is won or obtained.

   Payday came when she was given a screen test by a big Hollywood studio.

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payday British  

/ ˈpeɪˌdeɪ /

noun

1. the day on which wages or salaries are paid

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paydays
  plural

Etymology

Origin of payday

First recorded in 1520–30; pay ¹ + day

Explanation

When you have a job, your payday is the day you get paid. You might wait to buy yourself a new outfit until after payday. Some jobs have a weekly payday — maybe Fridays are payday at the ice cream shop where you work. In other cases, you have to wait two weeks, or even a month, between paydays. You can also use payday to mean a sudden success or influx of money, either earned or won: "That movie brought a huge payday to its producers." Since 1932, there's also been a peanut and nougat-based candy bar called PayDay.

Example Sentences

Appeared in the June 23, 2026, print edition as 'A $100 Million Payday For U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 23, 2026

A nephew who kept stealing his father’s Payday candy bars over Christmas earned the nickname Payday.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 12, 2025

The case the justices will hear began when two associations sued over the agency’s Payday Lending Rule.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 27, 2023

The 39-page ruling invalidated the Payday Lending Rule, which became effective in 2018.

From Washington Times • Oct. 20, 2022

Mom wouldn’t let us watch TV, so we played Mom’s old board games like Life, Sorry!, and Payday.

From "Keep It Together, Keiko Carter" by Debbi Michiko Florence