profitable
Americanadjective
-
yielding profit; remunerative.
a profitable deal.
-
beneficial or useful.
- Synonyms:
- helpful, valuable, advantageous
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of profitable
Explanation
Things that are profitable make money or are beneficial in other ways. Businesses hope to be profitable in the financial sense, but a profitable relationship is one that's good for everyone involved. Profitable started out as a word to describe anything useful, but it hooked up with finance in the mid-1700s. Profits are measured in money earned beyond expenses, so profitable businesses or transactions make money. A busy restaurant, sold-out concert, and best-selling book are all profitable. People also use this word for situations that are good in ways that don’t involve money. If you learned a lot from something, then it was a profitable experience, even if you didn't make any cash.
Vocabulary lists containing profitable
Content Summary 4.1: Causes and Consequences of Iberian Maritime Exploration and Colonialism
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From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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Business, List 3
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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.
The harder question is whether the companies racing to control nearby inventory, merchants, and riders can make the model profitable before regulators and price wars cut into returns.
From Barron's • May 23, 2026
It was the most valuable part of the business—and the only profitable one.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
It is an investment with "a whole bunch of zeros behind the dollars", he says - and one pharmaceutical companies so far have not seen as being profitable.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
In his view, however, Nvidia is a profitable company that has the means to deploy its capital in ways that will mean more returns.
From MarketWatch • May 22, 2026
One of the reasons Wall Street had cooked up this new industry called structured finance was that its old-fashioned business was every day less profitable.
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.
