earnings
Americannoun
plural noun
-
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.
One is U.S. corporate earnings, they noted, which grew by 30% in the second quarter.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
The earnings have boosted his spending: Beam recently bought a GMC Yukon and is house-hunting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Shares of Palantir Technologies have been on a tear since the company posted earnings last month, helping to cement a remarkable comeback off their June lows.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
None of these metrics imply that the market can’t continue to rise for the next year or two, especially if corporate earnings continue to grow rapidly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
He had plenty left over after buying five cans of frozen lemonade mix with his earnings from yesterday.
From "The Lemonade War" by Jacqueline Davies
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.
