PROFITABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does profitable mean? 

• PROFITABLE (adjective)
  The adjective PROFITABLE has 1 sense:

1. yielding material gain or profit

  Familiarity information: PROFITABLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROFITABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Yielding material gain or profit

Context example:

profitable speculation on the stock market

Similar:

bankable (guaranteed to bring a profit)

fat; juicy (lucrative)

gainful; paid; paying (yielding a fair profit)

economic (financially rewarding)

lucrative; moneymaking; remunerative (producing a sizeable profit)

Also:

advantageous; favorable; favourable (giving an advantage)

productive (producing or capable of producing (especially abundantly))

useful; utile (being of use or service)

Antonym:

unprofitable (producing little or no profit or gain)

Derivation:

profitability; profitableness (the quality of affording gain or benefit or profit)

profitableness (the quality of being encouraging or promising of a successful outcome)

 Context examples 

The teaching would render her independent, and such leisure as she got might be made profitable by writing, while the new scenes and society would be both useful and agreeable.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

January 23 should also be a profitable day when Venus and Jupiter will be in sync, and not only will the money arrive, but so will praise from higher-ups.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

My master, finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to carry me to the most considerable cities of the kingdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The hunting promised to be profitable.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

So ended my country trip, and it must be confessed that, however enjoyable, my day on the Surrey border has not been much more profitable than your own.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Whatever I had within me that was romantic and dreamy, was encouraged by so much story-telling in the dark; and in that respect the pursuit may not have been very profitable to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You need be in no hurry to hear, he said: let me frankly tell you, I have nothing eligible or profitable to suggest.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These incentives promote the development and manufacturing of such therapeutics, which otherwise might not be profitable because of the small potential market.

(Orphan Drug, NCI Thesaurus)

We should satisfy demand for vegetable oil with profitable production systems, preserve habitats of conservation importance, and mitigate the negative effects of oil palm plantations on the environment.

(Greener palm oil possible without sacrificing profit, SciDev.Net)

Ending overfishing is a quick, deliverable action which will restore fish populations, create more resilient ocean ecosystems, decrease CO2 pollution and increase carbon capture, and deliver more profitable fisheries and thriving coastal communities.

(Oceans running out of oxygen at unprecedented rate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)