Ponzi
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of Ponzi
After Charles Ponzi (died 1949), the organizer of such a scheme in the U.S., 1919–20
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.
A former Pacific Palisades resident was found guilty by a federal jury in Orange County on Thursday of running a Ponzi scheme that stole nearly $2 million from investors in smart ring technology.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Average return since the launch of Jawahar’s Ponzi scheme?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
Read more about Ponzi and other scandalous corporate misdeeds of the past 100+ years by signing up for 7 Financial Crimes That Rocked the U.S., a seven-week email series.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Cloth is also accused of engaging in a Ponzi scheme by using the acquired investor funds to repay prior investors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
They had the essential feature of a Ponzi scheme: To maintain the fiction that they were profitable enterprises, they needed more and more capital to create more and more subprime loans.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
