profit

• ꝓfit (abbreviation, obsolete)

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.

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

• Audio (US)

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

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.
   • 1750 Oct. 2, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler:

     Let no man anticipate uncertain profits.

   • 1935, Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, page 1 & 7:

     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.

   • 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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians vii:35:

     This I speak for your own profit.

   • 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]:

     if you dare do yourself a profit and a right

3. (property law) Ellipsis of profit à prendre.

Regarding the income sense, when the difference is negative, the term loss is preferred. Negative profit does appear in microeconomics. Profit by a government agency is called a surplus.

• gain

• loss

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).
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 4:2:

     The word preached did not profit them.

   • 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:

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

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

• proficiency
• proficient

• “profit”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “profit”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• forpit

From Latin prōfectus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pɾuˈfit]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [pɾoˈfit]

profit m (plural profits)

1. benefit, advantage

• aprofitar
• bon profit
• profitós

• “profit” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “profit”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “profit” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “profit” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old French profit, from Latin prōfectus.

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.fi/

• audio

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profit m (plural profits)

1. profit, benefit

   Il a su tirer profit de ses connaissances.

   He managed to take advantage of his knowledge.

• “profit”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from German Profit.[1]

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

profit (plural profitok)

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

   Synonyms: haszon, nyereség

• profit in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

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

profit m (plural profits)

1. (Jersey) profit

Borrowed from French profit.[1][2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈprɔ.fit/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ɔfit
• Syllabification: pro‧fit

profit m inan

1. (literary, accounting, economics) profit (money acquired)

   Synonyms: dochód, przychód

2. (literary) profit (benefit, positive result obtained)

   Synonyms: korzyść, pożytek, zysk

• profit in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• profit in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “profit”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “profit”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861‎
• A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1908), “profit”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎ (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw, page 1009
• profit in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego

Borrowed from French profit.

profit n (plural profituri)

1. profit

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

pròfīt m (Cyrillic spelling про̀фӣт)

1. profit

From Old Swedish profit, from French profit, from Latin prōficere. Attested since 1487.

profit c

1. (derogatory) profit, unearned income

• profitera
• profitör

• profit in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• profit in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• profit in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From English profit.

profit

1. profit
2. interest