profit

Etymology

From Middle English profit, from Old French profit (French: profit), from Latin profectus (“advance, progress, growth, increase, profit”), from proficere (“to go forward, advance, make progress, be profitable or useful”); see proficient.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: prŏfʹit, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒfɪt/
• (General American) enPR: prŏfʹit, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑfɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: prophet
• Rhymes: -ɒfɪt
• Hyphenation: prof‧it

Noun

profit (countable and uncountable, plural profits)

1. (accounting, economics) 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.
   • Rambler

     Let no man anticipate uncertain profits.

   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

2. (dated, literary) Benefit, positive result obtained.

   Reading such an enlightening book on the subject was of much profit to his studies.

   • Bible, 1 Corinthians vii. 35

     This I speak for your own profit.

   • Shakespeare

     if you dare do yourself a profit and a right

3. (law) In property law, a nonpossessory interest in land whereby a party is entitled to enter the land of another for the purpose of taking the soil or the substance of the soil (coal, oil, minerals, and in some jurisdictions timber and game).

Verb

profit (third-person singular simple present profits, present participle profiting, simple past and past participle profited)

1. (transitive) To benefit (somebody), be of use to (somebody).
   • Bible, Hebrews iv. 2

     The word preached did not profit them.

   • Dryden

     It is a great means of profiting yourself, to copy diligently excellent pieces and beautiful designs.

2. (intransitive, construed with from) To benefit, gain.
3. (intransitive, construed with from) To take advantage of, exploit, use.

Derived terms

Related terms

• proficiency
• proficient

Further reading

• profit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• profit in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• forpit

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin prōfectus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.fi/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

profit m (plural profits)

1. profit, benefit

   Il a su tirer profit de ses connaissances.

   He managed to take advantage of his knowledge.

Further reading

• “profit” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From German Profit.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈprofit]
• Hyphenation: pro‧fit

Noun

profit (plural profitok)

1. profit (total income or cash flow minus expenditures)

References

Etymology

From Old French profit, from Latin profectus (“advance, progress, growth, increase, profit”).

Noun

profit m (plural profits)

1. (Jersey) profit

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /prǒfiːt/
• Hyphenation: pro‧fit

Noun

pròfīt m (Cyrillic spelling про̀фӣт)

1. profit

Etymology

From English profit.

Noun

profit

1. profit
2. interest