as in lucrative
yielding a profit
graduated from school and went looking for gainful employment
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of gainful
At her age, being prickly was neither enchanting nor gainful.
—
Yiyun Li,
New Yorker,
15 June 2025
Schools that do not meet gainful employment expectations risk losing access to federal funding.
—
Kamaron McNair,
CNBC,
2 June 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
Her husband takes a stab at gainful employment with a food delivery service but quits because the wealthier class of Singaporean customers prove fussy and prone to complaining.
—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for gainful
Yiyun Li,
New Yorker,
15 June 2025
Schools that do not meet gainful employment expectations risk losing access to federal funding.
—
Kamaron McNair,
CNBC,
2 June 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
Her husband takes a stab at gainful employment with a food delivery service but quits because the wealthier class of Singaporean customers prove fussy and prone to complaining.
—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for gainful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gainful
Adjective
-
Cloud infrastructure has proven to be highly lucrative for hyperscaler peers Amazon, Microsoft and Google, and Zuckerberg has hinted of late that Meta could be headed in that direction.
-
That might mean gutting labor or safety standards that would delay the technology’s rollout, ignoring anticompetitive acts, or providing favors in the form of cheap loans or lucrative government contracts.
Adjective
-
Claude has been gross margin positive since the day Anthropic began selling it, profitable on the first dollar of customer spend rather than the thousandth.
-
And as the 2023 dual writers’ and actors’ strikes thinned out theatrical lineups, that aversion to uncertainty became a push for reliable and profitable hits.
Adjective
-
For some buyers, paying extra for the latest model can be worthwhile.
-
Most people agree that updating government websites is a worthwhile and necessary endeavor.
Cite this Entry
“Gainful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gainful. Accessed 4 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
