lucrative
adjective
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Payinggainfulremunerativeand lucrative are all used to describe ways to bring home the baconbut 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 compensationbut you're not going to get rich by it. Gainful employment might offer a bit more cashand gainful certainly suggests that an individual is motivated by a desire for gain. Remunerative implies that a job provides more than the usual rewardsbut 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 lucrummeaning "gain" or "profit").
Examples of lucrative in a Sentence
Rachel Donadio New York Times Book Review 5 Feb. 2006
Clubs take care of their star and other best players firstpaying them lucrative salaries. By the time they get to the bottom half of the rosterthey 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 marketplaceit 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. Stryveralready fast shouldering his way to a large and lucrative practicebehind his compeers in this particularany 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
Andreina RodriguezCNBC5 Dec. 2025
Many potential candidates appeared to sign lucrative extensions at their current schools insteadincluding BYU's Kalani Sitake.
—CBS News5 Dec. 2025
The holidays coincide with the approach of tax filing seasoncreating a lucrative window for scammers to target consumerstax professionalsand businesses nationwide.
—Associate News EditorMSNBC Newsweek4 Dec. 2025
Gauff’s most lucrative endorsement deal is with New Balance.
—Kurt BadenhausenSportico.com3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for lucrative
Cite this Entry
“Lucrative.” Merriam-Webster.com DictionaryMerriam-Websterhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lucrative. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.
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lucrative
adjective
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lucrative
adjective
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