How to use earn in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb
Earn means to gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. Example: “You can have the s'mores: you earned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.”
Examples of earn by meaning
verbTo gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- You can have the s'mores: you earned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.
- With their hard work and dedication, they earned respect and a seat at the table.
- It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
verbTo receive payment for work or for a role or position held (regardless of whether effort was applied or whether the...
- He earns seven million dollars a year as CEO. My bank account is only earning one percent interest.
- She earns more than forty thousand dollars a year in passive income from her parents' investments — that's what she gets before she even gets out of bed or lifts a finger.
- Meanwhile, financial executives whose irresponsible policies and slipshod oversight contributed to the collapse nevertheless earned—and kept—billions of dollars in bonuses, stock options, and other forms of incentive compensation.2015, Jason Zweig, The Devil's Financial Dictionary, PublicAffairs, →ISBN, page 1
verbTo receive payment for work.
- Now that you are earning, you can start paying me rent.
verbTo cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.
- My CD earns me six percent!
- In that era, all their long, hard, dangerous labor in the mines barely earned them even enough to eat!
verbTo achieve by being worthy of.
- to earn a spot in the top 20
More sentences with earn
- During the summer, Peter earned some extra cash by leafleting for a local pizza delivery restaurant.From the entry leaflet
- Income must be reported in the period in which it is earned, whenever payment is actually received.From the entry whenever
- All his money goes off as soon as he earns it.From the entry go off
- The owners let the managers eventually earn a stake in the business.From the entry stake
- It's about time we abandoned the bourgeois shibboleth that earning money makes you a better person.From the entry shibboleth
- Patrick was the unlikely match-winner as Berkeley earned a fortunate victory over Chisolm.From the entry fortunate
- She went from getting Cs and Ds to earning straight As.From the entry as
- In economic terms, the North controls four-fifths of the income earned anywhere in the world.From the entry north
- They didn't earn much, but it was enough to keep the wolf from the door.From the entry keep the wolf from the door
- His unsuccessful attempt earned him sympathy, condolences, and an occasional good-natured ribbing.From the entry unsuccessful
- Daniel Boone's sharpshooting earned him a place in the annals of the American west.From the entry sharpshooting
- I'm earning more money now, but I don't have as much free time.From the entry as much
- After all that work, I've earned the princely sum of two pounds.From the entry princely sum
- The company earned fifty thousand dollars last month.From the entry thousand
- What money I earn is soon spent.From the entry what
- Jones retired seven to earn the save.From the entry save
- Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.From the entry cost
- We've earned enough to cover most of our costs.From the entry cover
- He earns a modest amount of money.From the entry modest
- He earns the least money in his family.From the entry least
- The remark earned me a stern rebuke.From the entry stern
- He's hoping to earn his jacket this year.From the entry jacket
- A penny saved is a penny earned.From the entry saved
- His acts of benevolence earned him great respect.From the entry benevolence
- The pitcher of the new film stands to earn millions.From the entry pitcher
- His flagrant rulebreaking earned him a demotion.From the entry rulebreaking
- The changes to the algorithm resulted in a thousandfold increase in efficiency, earning the engineer a small brass plaque.From the entry thousandfold
- His treasonous actions earned Benedict Arnold eternal scorn.From the entry treasonous
- His opsimathy meant that he was over 60 before he entered college, and over 70 before he earned his doctorate.From the entry opsimathy
- They don't seem to want to work to earn a living. They think they can make money out of thin air.From the entry out of thin air
Meaning of earn
- verb To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- verb To receive payment for work or for a role or position held (regardless of whether effort was applied or whether the remuneration is deserved or commensurate).
- verb To receive payment for work.
Questions about earn in a sentence
- How do you use earn in a sentence?
- Earn is used as a verb. For example: “You can have the s'mores: you earned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.”
- What is a short sentence with earn?
- “My CD earns me six percent!”
- What does earn mean?
- Earn means to gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: earn (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use earn in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/earn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.