How to use pay in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun, adjective
Pay means to give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services. Example: “How much will the job pay?”
Examples of pay by meaning
verbTo give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
- How much will the job pay?
- She is paying him to clean the place up.
- He doesn't have money, but he pays rent in chores and housework.
verbTo deposit into an account.
- I pay a portion of each paycheck into a savings account.
verbTo discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
- to pay compensation, to pay a fine
- She offered to pay the bill.
- He is paying his debt to society.
verbTo be profitable; to be worth it.
- It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.
- Crime doesn’t pay.
- It will pay to wait.
verbTo cover, as a cost.
- Those investments paid for her college education.
verbTo yield as a benefit.
- to pay dividends; to pay interest
- You will get paid from this investment yearly.
verbTo give (something else than money).
- to pay attention, to pay tribute, to pay a visit
verbTo suffer consequences, especially justly.
- He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.
More sentences with pay
- The man used his watch as barter to pay for his tab.From the entry barter
- Please pay me in cash — preferably in tens and twenties.From the entry in
- If he doesn't pay off the mafia, he’ll wear cement shoes to the bottom of the drink!From the entry drink
- A young man of 20 has been paying interest at an exorbitant rate of 10%.From the entry of
- The mayor rewarded his cronies with cushy plums, requiring little work for handsome pay.From the entry plum
- I don't have any money but I can pay in kind by washing the dishes.From the entry kind
- Paying the mortgage every month is a millstone round their necks.From the entry millstone
- If union leadership is bought, why should we even pay dues?From the entry bought
- Many mourners turned up at the local artist's funeral to pay homage.From the entry funeral
- Cashier: "Cash or card? Customer: "I'm paying on my phone, so card."From the entry card
- A customer who pays with a 10-pound note for a £9 item receives one pound in change.From the entry change
- There was a call by the unions for a 30% pay rise.From the entry by
- We pay an hourly rate of between $10 – $15 per hour depending on qualifications and experience.From the entry rate
- I hardly have enough left every month to pay the rates.From the entry rate
- The contract requires that the party of the first part pay the fee.From the entry party
- I didn't have any coins to pay with, so I used a note.From the entry note
- Are you happy to pay me back by the end of the week?From the entry happy
- It was to be a collect delivery, but no-one was available to pay.From the entry collect
- After pay day I can afford to splash some cash and buy myself a motorbike.From the entry splash
- I'm sorry for crashing the bike into a wall. I'll pay for repairs.From the entry crash
- He hounded me for weeks, but I was simply unable to pay back his loan.From the entry hound
- If you pay attention to the dynamics as you play, it's a very moving piece.From the entry dynamic
- Not willing to pay full price for the computer game, Heidi pirated a copy.From the entry pirate
- There was a bit of a debate over who should pay for the damaged fence.From the entry debate
- It's a choice location, but you will pay more to live there.From the entry choice
Meaning of pay
- verb To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
- verb To deposit into an account.
- verb To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.
Questions about pay in a sentence
- How do you use pay in a sentence?
- Pay is used as a verb, noun and adjective. For example: “How much will the job pay?”
- What is a short sentence with pay?
- “Crime doesn’t pay.”
- What does pay mean?
- Pay means to give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pay (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.
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Cite this page: “How to use pay in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/pay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.