Word.ws English Dictionary

Ponzi

UK/ˈpɒnzi/US/ˈpɑnzi/

Ponzi adjective: pertaining to a scheme whereby investors' returns are paid for directly by later investors' investments, giving the false impression that the investment is viable.

Adjective

Ponzi (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to a scheme whereby investors' returns are paid for directly by later investors' investments, giving the false impression that the investment is viable.
    • Officers, who say he [Kautilya Nandan Pruthi] was Britain's most prolific Ponzi fraudster "by some way", fear that only around £2m will be returned to his victims.2012 March 8, “Fraudster jailed for Britain's biggest Ponzi scam”, in The Guardian

Noun

Ponzi (plural Ponzis or Ponzies)

  1. A Ponzi scheme.
    • Based on the media's portrayal of these Ponzies, at the end of the day, it seems as though these villains had zero concern about what they were doing to their clients.2010, Nico R. Willis, Death of the American Investor, The Emergence of the New Global eShareholder, page 28
    • There are as many Ponzies and greedy people that have infinite time and resources, knowledge, freedom and the greatest of all, The Purpose!2011, Go Pal, Politics of Convenience! Upset the Balance of Power, page 24

Verb

Ponzi (third-person singular simple present Ponzies (very rare), present participle Ponzying, simple past and past participle Ponzied)

  1. (informal, intransitive, uncommon) To introduce or perpetrate a Ponzi scheme style scam.
    • Harry then ponzied over on Rotarians, the slickest scheme in high finance that has ever been witnessed by the organization.1920, Rotary Club of Minneapolis, “Today's Meeting”, in The Tribunette, volume 7, number 29
    • Senator KERRY: Lending and ponzying and scheming and defrauding and buying illegally and doing all these things, correct?1992, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, The BCCI Affair, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on...
  2. (informal, transitive, uncommon) To deceive someone by promising false investment returns that are funded by the proceeds of a new victim.
    • About 6,000 California investors did—and got "Ponzied" out of their money.1999, Jack Heselov, Politics, Money & Shtick, page 24
    • Never mind that the losers outnumber them and that their losses are greater than the winners' gains; the losers discover that in effect they got Ponzied.2020, William Ian Miller, Outrageous Fortune, Gloomy Reflections on Luck and Life, page 10

Examples of Ponzi in a sentence

  • To be fair, degenerate gambling and poorly designed Ponzis have consumed some corners of the crypto market, […]2023, Ben Armstrong, Catching Up to Crypto, page 67:
  • There was a man, very "smart", who ponzied his way to billions of dollars.2009, P. L. Reynolds, The Ten Commandments, a Common Man's Opinion, page 71:
  • Weinstein acknowledged that he was conducting a Ponzi scheme, stating, “I finagled, and Ponzied and lied to people to cover us,” Selinger said.2023 July 20, David Shasha, “The Pride of Lakewood: Trumpscum Jew Sewer Rat Alan Dershowitz, Paid Friend of Ponzi Scheme Recidivist Eli...

Forms of Ponzi

Noun
pluralPonzis
pluralPonzies
Verb
present participlePonzying
past participlePonzied
pastPonzied
third-person singular present (rare)Ponzies

Origin of Ponzi

Named after con artist Charles Ponzi (1882–1949) who notoriously ran such type of scam.

Phrases with Ponzi

Words that rhyme with Ponzi

Questions about Ponzi

What does Ponzi mean?
Ponzi means pertaining to a scheme whereby investors' returns are paid for directly by later investors' investments, giving the false impression that the investment is viable.
How do you use Ponzi in a sentence?
To be fair, degenerate gambling and poorly designed Ponzis have consumed some corners of the crypto market, […]
What part of speech is Ponzi?
Ponzi can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce Ponzi?
Ponzi is pronounced /ˈpɒnzi/ (UK).

Words near Ponzi in the dictionary

  1. ponytailers
  2. Ponytailgate
  3. ponytailing
  4. ponytails
  5. Ponza
  6. Ponzi
  7. Ponzi game
  8. Ponzi games
  9. ponzi scam
  10. ponzi scams
  11. Ponzi scheme

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ponzi (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: “Ponzi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ponzi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.