Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The management of money, banking, investments, and credit.
  • noun Monetary resources.
  • noun The supplying of funds or capital.
  • transitive verb To provide or raise the funds or capital for.
  • transitive verb To supply funds to.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To conduct financial operations; manage finances in either a public or a private capacity: often used in a derogatory sense.
  • To manage financially; be financier for; furnish with finances or money.
  • noun A fine; forfeit; ransom.
  • noun plural Revenue; funds in the treasury, or accruing to it; resources of money: as, the finances of the government were in a low condition.
  • noun plural The income or resources of an individual.
  • noun The science of monetary business or affairs; the system by which the income of a nation, state, or corporation is raised and administered; pecuniary management in general: as, the study of political economy and finance; the system of finance pursued by an administration, or a bank, corporation, or other company.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The income of a ruler or of a state; revenue; public money; sometimes, the income of an individual; often used in the plural for funds; available money; resources.
  • noun The science of raising and expending the public revenue.
  • verb To conduct the finances of; to provide for, and manage, the capital for; to financier.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The management of money and other assets.
  • noun The science of management of money and other assets.
  • noun usually in plural the monetary resources, especially those of a public entity or a company.
  • verb To provide or obtain funding for a transaction or undertaking; to back; to support.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the branch of economics that studies the management of money and other assets
  • noun the commercial activity of providing funds and capital
  • verb obtain or provide money for
  • noun the management of money and credit and banking and investments
  • verb sell or provide on credit

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English finaunce, settlement, money supply, from Old French finance, payment, from finer, to pay ransom, from fin, end, from Latin fīnis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English finaunce, from Anglo-Norman, Middle French finance, from finer ("to pay ransom") (whence also English fine ("to pay a penalty")), from fin ("end"), from Latin fīnis.

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Examples

  • WORDS ACCENTED ON THE LAST SYLLABLE: address _address'_ adept _adept'_ adult _adult'_ ally _ally'_ commandant _commandänt '(ä as in arm) _ contour _contour'_ dessert _dessert'_ dilate _dilate'_ excise _eksiz'_ finance _finance'_ grimace _grimace'_ importune _importune'_ occult _occult'_ pretence _pretence'_ research _research'_ robust _robust'_ romance _romance'_ tirade _tirade'_

    Practical Grammar and Composition Thomas Wood

  • He has conducted the king's affairs in a manner so contrary to that of his predecessors that he is at this moment suspected by the clergy, hateful to the grandees of the state, hounded to the death by the heads of finance (_la haute finance_), dishonored amongst the magistracy.

    A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6 1830

  • For example, someone who has come up through finance and wants to move into manufacturing, how can they show their company that what they have worked on in finance is applicable to what they want to do in [another area]?

    E.M.B.A. Career Coaches Help Students Find Work JANE PORTER 2010

  • One of the most difficult things in finance is for a depreciated currency to recover the former value.

    The European Situation 1924

  • The package is viewed in Copenhagen as a sign of goodwill on longer-term finance, which is a core part of an overall deal for rolling back climate change under a post-2012 planet-wide pact.

    EU News 2009

  • The package is viewed in Copenhagen as a sign of goodwill on longer-term finance, which is a core part of an overall deal for rolling back climate change under a post-2012 planet-wide pact.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2009

  • If you are very well-educated and very well-connected, if you're at the right place at the right time, if you are in finance, particularly, or if you are a CEO, if you are a top executive of a big company, you are doing marvelously well.

    Reich Blames Economy's Woes On Income Disparity 2010

  • If you are very well-educated and very well-connected, if you're at the right place at the right time, if you are in finance, particularly, or if you are a CEO, if you are a top executive of a big company, you are doing marvelously well.

    Reich Blames Economy's Woes On Income Disparity 2010

  • If you are very well-educated and very well-connected, if you're at the right place at the right time, if you are in finance, particularly, or if you are a CEO, if you are a top executive of a big company, you are doing marvelously well.

    Reich Blames Economy's Woes On Income Disparity 2010

  • There needs to be new avenues to direct long-term finance into small and medium-sized enterprise and infrastructure.

    Good capitalism does exist. And it's more crucial now than ever | Will Hutton 2011

  • The phrase “transition finance” is loosely defined as investments mainly in industries and infrastructure that help drive efforts to achieve a net-zero economy.

    ‘Transition Finance’ Takes Center Stage in 2024 Natasha White 2024

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