payment

noun

ˈpā-mənt How to pronounce payment (audio)
Definition of paymentnext
1
as in paying
the act of offering money in exchange for goods or services they are very prompt in the payment of their credit card bills

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in pay
something (as money) that is given or received in return for goods or services our payment for all the work we did barely covered our expenses we finally mailed our last car payment last week

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in salary
the money paid regularly to a person for labor or services your payment will be issued as a weekly check

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 payment For example, a household earning $6,000 per month should aim to keep its total housing costs below $1,680 and its total debt payments below $2,160. — Deane Biermeier, USA Today, 8 Aug. 2026 More than 500 incoming first-year students were unenrolled for missing a July tuition payment deadline, the university said. — Matt Brown, Fortune, 8 Aug. 2026 South Africa cannot defend its standing as Africa’s preeminent financial gateway by locking its companies out of 21st-century payment systems. — Tiisetso Motsoeneng, semafor.com, 7 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for payment
Recent Examples of Synonyms for payment
  1. paying
  2. pay
  3. salary
  4. compensation
  5. wage
Noun
  • The affordability crisis extends to healthcare, housing, and access to good paying jobs.
    — Elijah Manley, Sun Sentinel, 9 July 2026
  • The survey shows who will be doing more of the paying.
    — Lars Daniel, Forbes.com, 14 May 2026
Definition of paying
Noun
  • Ireland’s museum sector is reportedly plagued by precarious contracts, low pay, unpaid labor, and toxic workplace cultures, driving burnout, excluding talent, and risking the loss of vital institutional knowledge.
    — George Nelson, ARTnews.com, 10 Aug. 2026
  • For most of Season 3, many of those riders have come to realize that dragon riding is a whole lot of work with very little pay and they are still treated like second-class citizens.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of pay
Noun
  • The additional pension costs imposed by AB 1383 would leave cities with less money for staffing, salaries, and other public services or require significant tax increases.
    — Mariana Trujillo, Oc Register, 11 Aug. 2026
  • Without his salary, Bondele says, paying rent, buying food and phone credit, covering transportation costs and paying water bills have become daily struggles.
    — Prosper Heri Ngorora, Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of salary
Noun
  • According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and plan on compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 9 Aug. 2026
  • Salary transparency is fundamentally reshaping how individuals approach their careers, providing unprecedented access to compensation data.
    — Sho Dewan, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of compensation
Noun
  • Bondele was among hundreds of Ebola response workers in Bunia who staged strikes and protests over unpaid wages in recent weeks, at times abandoning health facilities and disrupting parts of the response as the outbreak continued to spread.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 7 Aug. 2026
  • The plaintiff is suing for compensatory damages for her injuries, medical expenses, lost job wages and more.
    — Katie Houlis, CBS News, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of wage

Phrases Containing payment

Browse Nearby Words

payloads
payment
payments
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Payment.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/payment. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on payment

Nglish: Translation of payment for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Aug. 7

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
fridge-magnet-letters
Drop a Letter Quiz August 2026 Drop a letter from a word to make a totally diffe...
See All