div ‧ i ‧ dend /ˈdɪvədənd, ˈdɪvɪdənd, -dend/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: dividendum 'thing to be divided' , from dividere ; ⇨ ↑ divide 1 ]
1 . a part of a company’s profit that is divided among the people with ↑ share s in the company
2 . British English prize money offered in a national competition called the ↑ football pools which people can win by correctly guessing the results of football games
3 . technical a number that is to be divided by another number
4 . pay/bring dividends to be very useful and bring a lot of advantages, especially later in the future:
Good eating habits will pay dividends later on in life.
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THESAURUS
▪ profit money that you gain by selling things or doing business, after your costs have been paid:
Our profits are down this year.
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The big oil companies have made enormous profits following the rise in oil prices.
▪ earnings the profit that a company makes:
The company said it expected fourth-quarter earnings to be lower than last year’s results.
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Pre-tax earnings have grown from $6.3 million to $9.4 million.
▪ return the profit that you get from an investment:
You should get a good return on your investment.
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We didn’t get much of a return on our money.
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They’re promising high returns on investments of over $100,000.
▪ turnover the amount of business done during a particular period:
The illicit drugs industry has an annual turnover of some £200 bn.
▪ takings the money that a business, shop etc gets from selling its goods in a day, week, month etc:
He counted the night’s takings.
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This week’s takings are up on last week’s.
▪ interest money paid to you by a bank or other financial institution when you keep money in an account there:
They are offering a high rate of interest on deposits of over £3000.
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The money is still earning interest in your account.
▪ dividend a part of a company’s profit that is divided among the people who have shares in the company:
Shareholders will receive a dividend of 10p for each share.
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The company said it will pay shareholders a final dividend of 700 cents a share.