profit

verb

profited; profiting; profits

intransitive verb

1

: to be of service or advantage : avail

2

: to derive benefit : gain

3

: to make a profit

transitive verb

: to be of service to : benefit

Synonyms of profit

• benefit

Examples of profit in a Sentence

It would profit him to take some computer classes.

The company has profited by selling its products online.

He profited greatly from his investments.

The island profits from tourism.

Recent Examples on the Web

William Jennings Bryan stepped onto the podium on July 8, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention inside Chicago Coliseum at 63rd Street and Stony Island Avenue, and demonstrated that reformers could profit from working within the system instead of fighting it. —Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 6 June 2026

SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI need more money, while the venture-capital and private-equity firms that have been propping them up want to finally profit from their major investments. —Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 5 June 2026

But the games are likely to profit criminal organizations too. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 4 June 2026

Santos allegedly profited tens of thousands of dollars from the bet, NPR reported based on three anonymous sources. —David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 3 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Phrases Containing profit

• at a profit
• for-profit
• non-profit-making
• not-for-profit
• paper profit
• profit and loss
• profit center
• profit margin
• profit motive
• profit sharing
• profit system

Rhymes for profit

• prophet
• soffit
• nonprofit

Kids Definition

profit

1 of 2 noun

prof·​it ˈpräf-ət 

1

: the gain or benefit from something

2

: the gain after all the expenses are subtracted from the amount received

profitless

-ləs 

adjective

profit

2 of 2 verb

1

: to get some good out of something : gain

profit by experience

2

: to be of use to (someone) : benefit

an agreement that profited us all

Legal Definition

profit

noun

prof·​it

1

: gain in excess of expenditures: as

a

: the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost

b

: net income from a business, investment, or capital appreciation compare earnings, loss

2

: a benefit or advantage from the use of property