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say it: gayn
gain is a verb and noun meaning "obtain". It carries 13 recorded senses.
win something through one's efforts
“I acquired a passing knowledge of Chinese”
“Gain an understanding of international finance”
“win someone's confidence and friendship”
derive a benefit from
“She profited from his vast experience”
reach a destination, either real or abstract
“We hit Detroit by noon”
“The water reached the doorstep”
“We barely made it to the finish line”
“I have to hit the MAC machine before the weekend starts”
obtain advantages, such as points, etc.
“The home team was gaining ground”
“After defeating the Knicks, the Blazers pulled ahead of the Lakers in the battle for the number-one playoff berth in the Western Conference”
“win points”
earn on some commercial or business transaction; earn as salary or wages
“How much do you make a month in your new job?”
“She earns a lot in her new job”
“this merger brought in lots of money”
“He clears $5,000 each month”
increase (one's body weight)
“She gained 20 pounds when she stopped exercising”
a quantity that is added
“there was an addition to property taxes this year”
“they recorded the cattle's gain in weight over a period of weeks”
the advantageous quality of being beneficial
the amount of increase in signal power or voltage or current expressed as the ratio of output to input
the amount by which the revenue of a business exceeds its cost of operating
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for gain come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.