for-profit

adjective

for-prof·​it ˈfȯr-ˈprä-fət 

: established, maintained, or conducted for the purpose of making a profit

for-profit businesses

Examples of for-profit in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

OpenAI's for-profit arm is also a public benefit corporation controlled by a nonprofit foundation whose directors must balance shareholder returns against a broader mission—a structure whose instability was laid bare when OpenAI's board fired and briefly ousted Sam Altman in 2023. —Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 2 June 2026

Empathy, service orientation and conscientiousness are genuine assets the for-profit world could learn from. —Patrick Jinks, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026

The success that OpenAI, Altman and Google had last month, with a jury rejecting co-founder Elon Musk’s $150 billion suit over the former nonprofit becoming a for-profit company, has set the stage for OpenAI going public in what some estimate as a trillion-dollar IPO. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 1 June 2026

The detention center is the Northeast's largest detention facility, the Tribune-Review reported, and it's run by Geo Group, a for-profit, private prison corporation based in Florida. —Finch Walker, USA Today, 29 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1939, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for for-profit

• nonprofit
• profit
• prophet
• soffit

Kids Definition

for-profit

adjective

for-prof·​it

ˈfȯr-ˈpräf-ət

: existing or carried on for the purpose of making a profit

for-profit business