Profit Meaning
/ˈpɹɒfɪt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounTotal 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.
nounBenefit, positive result obtained.
Sentence Examples
Stock investments do not always yield profit.
We shared the profit among us all.
At best we can only hope for a small profit.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After cutting costs and increasing sales, the company's annual ____ rose by 20%.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The company reported a record ____ for the third consecutive year, driven by strong overseas sales.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives... Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket—and are safely pocketed."
— 1935, Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, page 1 & 7:
"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."
— 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2020, page 68:
"After the pandemic, MLG lost a lot of its viewership and profits which led it to close. The MLG Twitter account is no longer active and the mlg.com website directs to Battlenet instead of its old website."
— 2023 October 13, Daniel Appleford, “Fans support MLG being brought back under Microsoft acquisition”, in Dexerto:
"This I speak for your own profit."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians vii:35:
"if you dare do yourself a profit and a right"
— c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
After cutting costs and increasing sales, the company's annual ____ rose by 20%.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The company reported a record ____ for the third consecutive year, driven by strong overseas sales.