Word.ws English Dictionary

found money

found money noun: unexpected money that one obtains in a manner that differs from one's usual sources of income.

Noun

found money (uncountable)

  1. Unexpected money that one obtains in a manner that differs from one's usual sources of income.
    • You can slice some girth from your debt load with a couple of big lump-sum payments, courtesy of any found money that comes along.2004, Dan Benson, 12 Stupid Mistakes People Make with Their Money, page 64
    • Note, though, that the rules of mental accounting are flexible—people are complicated. Sometimes they will categorize tax refunds, especially when they are small, as found money—and spend it accordingly.2010, Gary Belsky, Thomas Gilovich, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see found, money. Money that one finds.

Questions about found money

What does found money mean?
Found money means unexpected money that one obtains in a manner that differs from one's usual sources of income.
What part of speech is found money?
Found money is a noun.

Words near found money in the dictionary

  1. found God
  2. found in
  3. found it in one's heart
  4. found it in oneself
  5. found literature
  6. found money
  7. found music
  8. found object
  9. found objects
  10. found on
  11. found one's account

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: found money (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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