income

UK/ˈɪnˌkʌm/US/ˈɪnˌkʌm/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,947 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: incomes

Income is all the money that comes to you — from jobs, rent, or anything else. Annual income, income tax, a second income.

It is a flow where wealth is a stock, which is the distinction behind most confused arguments about inequality: a person can have a high income and no wealth, or great wealth and little income. Disposable income is what is left after tax. Note that the word is simply in plus come.

Definitions of income

1nounincomeAll the money that comes to a person or body.B2
“Their income barely covers the rent and the bills.”

income is money received.

Also accepted in games: earnings

Where it comes from

In plus come, perhaps continuing Old English incyme, an entrance. Dutch inkomen is the same compound.

Old English
incyme — an in-coming, entrance
Middle English
income
English, today
income

From Middle English income, perhaps continuing (in altered form) Old English incyme (“an in-coming, entrance”), equivalent to in- + come. Cognate with stq Íenkúumen (“income”), West Frisian ynkommen (“income”), Dutch inkomen, inkomst (“income, earnings, gainings”), German Low German Inkumst (“income”), German Einkommen, Einkunft (“income, earnings, competence”), Danish indkomst (“income”), Swedish inkomst (“income”), Icelandic innkváma (“income”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Work & Careers

Practise this word

income in the wild

For example, a person's income in an economic sense may be different from their income as defined by law.
Income
For a firm, gross income can be defined as sum of all revenue minus the cost of goods sold.
Income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
Per capita income
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such as the American Community Survey.
Per capita income
Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income.
Income tax

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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