Profit
//ˈpɹɒfɪt// name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Total income or cash flow minus expenditures. The money or other benefit a non-governmental organization or individual receives in exchange for products and services sold at an advertised price. countable, uncountable
"Let no man anticipate uncertain profits."
- 2 the advantageous quality of being beneficial wordnet
- 3 Benefit, positive result obtained. countable, dated, literary, uncountable
"Reading such an enlightening book on the subject was of much profit to his studies."
- 4 the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses) wordnet
- 5 Ellipsis of profit à prendre. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To benefit (somebody), be of use to (somebody). transitive
"The word preached did not profit them."
- 2 make a profit; gain money or materially wordnet
- 3 To benefit, gain. intransitive
- 4 derive a benefit from wordnet
- 5 To take advantage of, exploit, use. intransitive
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Peter was an altruistic video game player; he would give items to people who needed them, rather than selling them for personal profit."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English profit, from Old French profit (Modern French profit), from Latin prōfectus (“advance, progress, growth, increase, profit”), from proficiō (“to go forward, advance, make progress, be profitable or useful”). Doublet of profect.
Etymology 2
Variant of Proffitt.
Related phrases
More for "profit"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.