as in lucrative
yielding a profit
graduated from school and went looking for gainful employment
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of gainful
At her age, being prickly was neither enchanting nor gainful.
—
Yiyun Li, New Yorker, 15 June 2025
The gainful employment rule is intended to help students avoid low-value programs that leave them with too much debt and minimal earning potential.
—Kamaron McNair, CNBC, 2 June 2025
Yesterday’s pangrams were gainful, unfailing and unflagging.
—Julia Jacobs, New York Times, 19 May 2025
Or workers could simply have given up on Martinsville and moved elsewhere in search of gainful employment.
—Gordon H. Hanson, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2021
See All Example Sentences for gainful
Yiyun Li, New Yorker, 15 June 2025
The gainful employment rule is intended to help students avoid low-value programs that leave them with too much debt and minimal earning potential.
—Kamaron McNair, CNBC, 2 June 2025
Yesterday’s pangrams were gainful, unfailing and unflagging.
—Julia Jacobs, New York Times, 19 May 2025
Or workers could simply have given up on Martinsville and moved elsewhere in search of gainful employment.
—Gordon H. Hanson, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2021
See All Example Sentences for gainful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gainful
Adjective
-
While the $52M mark is a 4% drop from the previous week, and about 7% down from the same time – Week 32 – last year, those slips reflect the always-lucrative Christmas week highs (Christmas fell within Week 32 last season).—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
6 Jan. 2026
-
But she was fired from her lucrative job in New York, and is forced to move back in with her mother, who lives in Utah in a house that Bea pays for.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
The Yahoo Boys promises to be an in-depth work of narrative nonfiction that explores the material conditions that make these scams profitable, and the lives of four such scammers in Lagos, Nigeria.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 Jan. 2026
-
But the Fed seems to view its job as ensuring that banks are profitable, even if that comes at the expense of people living in precarity.—
Aaron Klein,
The Atlantic,
2 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
While Morgan and Luke Kuechly have been mentoring the 2024 third-round pick, the Panthers probably need to upgrade over him with the top inside linebacker spot — or, at the very least, get some worthwhile insurance for his recovery from season-ending surgery.—
Mike Kaye
January 12,
Charlotte Observer,
12 Jan. 2026
-
Watching the volcano's interior move in 3D on a computer screen makes all of the effort worthwhile.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
11 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Gainful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gainful. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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