lucrative

adjective

lu·​cra·​tive ˈlü-krə-tiv 

: producing wealth : profitable

lucratively adverb

lucrativeness noun

Did you know?

Paying, gainful, remunerative, and lucrative are all used to describe ways to bring home the bacon, but each term suggests a different amount of bacon being brought in. Paying is the word for jobs that yield the smallest potatoes—a paying job should provide satisfactory compensation, but you're not going to get rich by it. Gainful employment might offer a bit more cash, and gainful certainly suggests that an individual is motivated by a desire for gain. Remunerative implies that a job provides more than the usual rewards, but a lucrative position is really the one you want—that's the kind that goes beyond your initial hopes or expectations to really bring in the lucre (both lucrative and lucre come from the Latin noun lucrum, meaning "gain" or "profit").

Synonyms of lucrative

• profitable

Examples of lucrative in a Sentence

Their success has given Gladwell an active, and extremely lucrative, second career as a public speaker. Much in demand, he is paid in the neighborhood of $40,000 per lecture. —Rachel Donadio, New York Times Book Review, 5 Feb. 2006

Clubs take care of their star and other best players first, paying them lucrative salaries. By the time they get to the bottom half of the roster, they would not have enough money left to pay veterans worthwhile salaries … —Murray Chass, New York Times, 16 Aug. 1994

Since the health care industry is lucrative and largely insulated from the usual disciplines of the marketplace, it has been able to absorb an ever-growing fraction of the gross domestic product. —Marcia Angell, New England Journal of Medicine, 17 June 1993

The learned profession of the law was certainly not behind any other learned profession in its Bacchanalian propensities; neither was Mr. Stryver, already fast shouldering his way to a large and lucrative practice, behind his compeers in this particular, any more than in the drier parts of the legal race. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859

The business has proved to be highly lucrative.

the new manager's mission was to turn the failing store into a lucrative operation

Recent Examples on the Web

With his success at Ole Miss, Kiffin has consistently been linked to rumors about other openings across the sport—some of which are considered more attractive or potentially lucrative than his current position. —Cole Sullivan, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Nov. 2025

Novo has found itself in an increasingly chaotic situation as of late, with shares plunging and investor confidence waning, as its role as the leading player in the highly lucrative weight-loss space is being called into question. —Elsa Ohlen, CNBC, 14 Nov. 2025

Build a personal brand with a following on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and lucrative sponsorship deals would soon come rolling in. —Becky Sullivan, NPR, 14 Nov. 2025

Music promoters, both craving the one-upmanship and genuine satisfaction of getting a lucrative band back on a stage, have more money at their disposal than ever before to make their pipe dreams a reality. —Devon Ivie, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English lucratif, from Middle French, from Latin lucrativus, from lucratus, past participle of lucrari to gain, from lucrum

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

lucrative

adjective

lu·​cra·​tive ˈlü-krət-iv 

: producing wealth : profitable

lucratively adverb

lucrativeness noun

Legal Definition

lucrative

adjective

lu·​cra·​tive ˈlü-krə-tiv 

1

: producing wealth or profit

2

: acquired, received, or had without burdensome conditions or giving of consideration

lucratively adverb

lucrativeness noun