DictionaryAI

finance

USFY-nans/ˈfaɪnæns/fi-NANS/fɪˈnæns/

Pluralfinances (some meanings)

Verbfinances, financing, financed

7 meanings of finance

Practice

  1. 1
    managing moneynoununcountable
    The work or practice of handling money, investments, and other assets.

    She built a career in finance after graduating with an economics degree.

    Sound finance requires balancing income against spending.

    UsageYou work in finance (no article); personal finance means managing your own money.

  2. 2
    provide moneyverbtransitive
    To provide or obtain the money needed for a purchase, project, or undertaking, or to raise and manage funds for it.

    The government will finance the bridge project through bonds.

    Investors agreed to finance the startup's expansion.

    UsageName the source with through or with (financed through a loan); the noun for the act is financing.

  3. 3
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The money available to a person or organization, especially to a government or a business.

    The minister warned that the nation's finances were in worse shape than voters had been told.

    The expansion was put on hold until the company could secure finance from its backers.

    UsageUsually finances with a plural verb: the family's finances are tight; singular finance often means funding: secure finance.

    Similarfunds, money, resources, capital, coffers

  4. 4
    nounBritishuncountable
    An arrangement such as a loan or installment terms that lets a customer buy an item without paying the full amount immediately.

    The dealership advertised zero-percent finance on all new models.

    Customers can spread the cost by arranging finance at checkout.

    UsageFinance on a car; people arrange or take out finance, or buy on finance; financing means the same.

    Similarcredit, loan

  5. 5
    studynoununcountable
    The branch of study concerned with how money and other assets are managed.

    Modern finance draws heavily on mathematics and statistics.

    He published several papers in the field of finance.

Less common meanings

  1. 6
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To extort a ransom from a captive in exchange for their release.
    Note

    The captor's side of the transaction is just as obsolete as the paying-ransom sense. The grammar flips: the verb is transitive, its subject holds the prisoners, and its object is the prisoner, so pirates financed their captives. The two old senses mirror each other the way payer and payee do, one verb seen from either end.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Both ransom senses of finance are obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
    • In the extortion sense, finance is transitive: the person demanding ransom is the subject and the captive is the object. The pirates sentence illustrates this construction. en.wiktionary.org
    • The two senses describe paying and exacting ransom. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 7
    verbobsoleteintransitive
    To pay a ransom to secure a captive's release.
    Note

    Here the verb stands closest to its French source. Middle French finer meant "to pay ransom" and was built on fin, "end", from Latin finis. English fine, a sum paid as a penalty, comes from the same root. The sense is obsolete, and it took no object: a captive simply financed. Its counterpart, extorting ransom from someone, faces the other way, from captor to captive.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of finance apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This comes from Middle English finaunce, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French finance, from finer ("to pay ransom"), from fin ("end"), from Latin fīnis. The original English sense around 1400 was "ending"; through French influence it came to mean settling a debt, then "ransom" (mid 15th century) and "taxation" (late 15th century). The sense of "manage money" was first recorded around 1770.

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts