time is money
time is money proverb: money is wasted (in lost wages, missed opportunities, etc.) when a person's time is not used productively; time is valuable and should not be wasted.
Proverb
time is money
- Money is wasted (in lost wages, missed opportunities, etc.) when a person's time is not used productively; time is valuable and should not be wasted.
- Remember that Time is Money. He that can earn Ten Shillings a Day by his Labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that Day, tho’ he spends but Sixpence during his Diversion or Idleness, ought not to reckon That the only Expence; he has really spent or rather thrown away Five Shillings...1748, Benjamin Franklin, “Advice to a young Tradesman, written by an old One”, in George Fisher, editor, The American Instructor: or Young Man’s Best Companion, 9th edition
- And what do you mean to do with your time this winter? You must remember that time is money.1823, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 14, in The Pioneers
time is money meaning in Hindi, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian
time is money in Hindi
- time is money
- समय ही धन है samay hī dhan hai
time is money in Arabic
- time is money
- اَلْوَقْتُ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ al-waqtu min ḏahabin
time is money in Malay
- time is money
- masa itu emas
time is money in Indonesian
- time is money
- waktu adalah uang
More languagesFewer languages
- time is money in Persian
- وقت طلاست
- time is money in Thai
- เวลาเป็นเงินเป็นทอง wee-laa-bpen-ngən-bpen-tɔɔng
- time is money in Vietnamese
- thời gian là tiền bạc
Origin of time is money
Generally attributed to Benjamin Franklin. See the cite from 1748.
Questions about time is money
- What does time is money mean?
- Time is money means money is wasted (in lost wages, missed opportunities, etc.) when a person's time is not used productively; time is valuable and should not be wasted.
- What is time is money in Hindi?
- Time is money in Hindi is समय ही धन है (samay hī dhan hai). See Time is money meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is time is money?
- Time is money is a proverb.
Words near time is money in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: time is 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-time is money.wav.
Cite this entry: “time is money.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/time_is_money. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.