Word.ws English Dictionary

on the books

on the books prepositional phrase: contained in an official list (of members, employees, clients, projects etc.).

Prepositional phrase

  1. Contained in an official list (of members, employees, clients, projects etc.).
    • The research was carried out by studying the medical records of some 17m people on the books of GPs in England and the 5,683 covid-attributable deaths therein.2020 May 14, “The pandemic has spawned a new way to study medical records”, in The Economist
    • In a final Italian-themed story, a host of Premier League clubs including Crystal Palace, West Ham, West Brom, plus the Championship pair Norwich and Watford, are being linked with a swoop for the French defender Jean-Claude Billong – who is on the books at Salernitana in Serie B.2020 September 4, Luke McLaughlin, “Football transfer rumours: Felipe Anderson in, Sokratis out at Arsenal?”, in The Guardian
  2. Recorded or registered, especially in an official or definitive manner.
    • The event was free, but there was a donation bowl for those who wanted to contribute and it was pretty packed with greenbacks. The first community soup event was on the books now.2010, Larry Stettner, Bill Morrison, Cooking for the Common Good: The Birth of a Natural Foods Soup Kitchen, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 133
    • “Chromatica” has become Lady Gaga’s sixth No. 1 album, with the equivalent of 274,000 sales in the United States, according to data from Nielsen Music. […] A six-date stadium tour is on the books for this summer, although, like most tours nowadays, it is unclear whether it will go forward as...2020 June 8, Ben Sisario, “Lady Gaga’s ‘Chromatica’ Is Her Sixth No. 1 Album”, in The New York Times
    1. Officially recorded in the financial records of a company or organization.
      • Promptly came the reply that there was no record on the books of father's owning any stock.1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 11, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC
      • The Southern acquired them because the little Class "B4" 0-4-0 tanks were finding heavy modern rolling stock more and more of a handful, and at war's end the railway had nothing of suitable power but short wheelbase on its books to take their place on the more tortuous of the dock lines.1959 February, G. Freeman Allen, “Southampton—Gateway to the Ocean”, in Trains Illustrated, page 91
    2. Officially recorded in the lawbooks; having the force of enacted law.
      • The ban on interracial marriages remained on the books for nearly a century after its passage.2004 October 29, Peter Wong, “Interracial-marriage ban used in Measure 36 comparisons”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A
      • Britain already has heroin on the books as a medication.2009 September 28, Gaëlle Faure, “Why Doctors Are Giving Heroin to Heroin Addicts”, in Time

Examples of on the books in a sentence

  • The immediate problem was $100 million in inventory, which Mattel thought had been sold, that mysteriously reappeared on the books at Learning Co.1999 October 17, Karl Taro Greenfeld, “Mattel: Some (Re)Assembly Required”, in Time:
  • While a majority of states — 33 — still have the death penalty on the books, that number has also been on the decline.2012 December 20, Ethan Bronner, “Use of Death Sentences Continues to Fall in U.S.”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Mar 2013:
  • There are a lot of battlements to breach before a national Human Rights Act is on the books.2017 November 17, Richard Ackland, “Erasing modern slavery is a slow process, but it catches on in Australia”, in The Guardian:

Forms of on the books

alternative formon someone's books

Origin of on the books

Compare books (“accounting records”).

Questions about on the books

What does on the books mean?
On the books means contained in an official list (of members, employees, clients, projects etc.).
How do you use on the books in a sentence?
The immediate problem was $100 million in inventory, which Mattel thought had been sold, that mysteriously reappeared on the books at Learning Co.
What part of speech is on the books?
On the books is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the books in the dictionary

  1. on the blob
  2. on the block
  3. on the boil
  4. on the boob
  5. on the book
  6. on the books
  7. on the bounce
  8. on the bow
  9. on the brain
  10. on the breadline
  11. on the brew

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the books (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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Cite this entry: “on the books.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_books. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.