Word.ws English Dictionary

on the money

on the money prepositional phrase: in the correct position; on target; precisely accurate; accurately.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In the correct position; on target; precisely accurate; accurately.
    • Did you have the wrong kind? I've never had the wrong kind. Ever. My worst one was right on the money.1979, Woody Allen, Manhattan, spoken by Isaac Davis (Woody Allen)
    • Two of the A-4s landed on the money. The third was not so lucky.1987 July, Maj. Michael B. Perini, “In Good Hands with Gold 11”, in Air Force Magazine, volume 70, number 7, retrieved 10 May 2014

Examples of on the money in a sentence

  • For years, Gore had been dismissed, even ridiculed, for his traveling Power Point extravaganza warning about climate change. […] Today, few would disagree that Al was pretty much on the money.2008 October 10, Richard Friebe, “How Nobel Winners Spend Their Prize Money: Al Gore”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2014:
  • I always felt that Bob Dylan was on the money when he sang: "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose."2011 August 19, The Secret Footballer, “For new boys there's nothing like the big time”, in The Guardian (UK), retrieved retrieved 10 May...
  • Its mileage claims were right on the money: I averaged a little over 33 m.p.g. over a weekend of combined city-highway driving in the 2012 SL.2013 February 1, Robert Peele, “The Mouse That Roars”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 May 2014:
  • Tuchel's side were on the money from the first whistle, the only surprise being it took them 33 minutes to break the deadlock.2025 September 9, Phil McNulty, “Serbia 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport:

Synonyms of on the money

Forms of on the money

alternative formright on the money

Questions about on the money

What does on the money mean?
On the money means in the correct position; on target; precisely accurate; accurately.
How do you use on the money in a sentence?
For years, Gore had been dismissed, even ridiculed, for his traveling Power Point extravaganza warning about climate change. […] Today, few would disagree that Al was pretty much on the money.
What part of speech is on the money?
On the money is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the money in the dictionary

  1. on the market
  2. on the mat
  3. on the mend
  4. on the mending hand
  5. on the merits
  6. on the money
  7. on the mop
  8. on the move
  9. on the muscle
  10. on the nail
  11. on the needle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on the money.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the money.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_money. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.