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finance

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The management of money and credit and banking and investments.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fuhnans

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IPA pronunciation (US)

fəˈnæns

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The management of money and credit and banking and investments

  2. The branch of economics that studies the management of money and other assets

  3. usually in the plural

    Monetary resources, especially those of a public entity or a company.

  4. The provision of a loan, payment instalment terms, or similar arrangement, to enable a customer to purchase an item without paying the full amount straight away.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To conduct, or procure money for, financial operations; manage finances.

  2. transitive

    To manage financially; be financier for; provide or obtain funding for a transaction or undertaking.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The management of money and credit and banking and investments

Used this way, finance is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use finance

  • “Can we finance the addition to our home?”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Management / branch

finance minister

Monetary

public finance

Other combinations

finance committeefinance companypersonal financeinternational financefinance corporationfinance act

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • financesnounPlural form

    Assets in the form of money.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • finance committeenounCompound term

    A committee appointed to consider financial issues.

  • finance companynounCompound term

    A financial institution (often affiliated with a holding company or manufacturer) that makes loans to individuals or businesses.

  • finance ministernounCompound term

    The minister responsible for state finances.

  • corporate financenounCompound term

    The financial activities of corporation.

  • high financenounCompound term

    Large and complex financial transactions (often used with the implication that those individuals or institutions who engage in them are unethical).

  • international finance corporationnounCompound term

    A United Nations agency that invests directly in companies and guarantees loans to private investors.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.