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Added 9 October 2026

lucre

/ˈluːkə/ noun

Latin root: lucrum Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about lucre at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Informal terms for money.
The excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses).

Origin

From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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