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Overhead vs Profit - What's the difference?

overhead | profit |

As nouns the difference between overhead and profit

is that overhead is the expense of a business not directly assigned to goods or services provided while profit is total income or cash flow minus expenditures. The money or other benefit a non-governmental organization or individual receives in exchange for products and services sold at an advertised price.

As an adjective overhead

is located above, especially over the head.

As an adverb overhead

is above one's head; in the sky.

As a verb profit is

to benefit (somebody), be of use to (somebody).

overhead

English

Etymology 1

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • located above, especially over the head
  • Place your luggage in the overhead bins.
  • (soccer) kicked over one's own head
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=February 12 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Man Utd 2 - 1 Man City , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=It was Rooney, however, who produced a moment of inspiration to score a stunning overhead kick that will live forever in the memory of United's fans and extended City's dismal sequence of only one league win in their last 27 visits to Old Trafford. }}

    Noun

  • (uncountable, business, accounting) The expense of a business not directly assigned to goods or services provided.
  • (countable, business, accounting) The items or classes of expense not directly assigned to goods or services provided.
  • (uncountable) Any cost or expenditure (monetary, time, effort or otherwise) incurred in a project or activity, which does not directly contribute to the progress or outcome of the project or activity.
  • (uncountable, business) Wasted money.
  • (tennis) A .
  • (nautical) The ceiling of any enclosed space below decks in a vessel
  • (transport) The system of overhead wires used to power electric transport, such as streetcars, trains, or buses.
  • (computing) data or steps of computation that is only used to facilitate the computations in the system and is not directly related to the actual program code or data being processed.
  • Network overhead''' is the header data that is required to route and transport data over network, whereas fork '''overhead is the additional time and memory cost of creating and managing new processes within operating system.
  • (juggling, by ellipsis) An overhead throw.
  • Derived terms
    * computational overhead

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Above one's head; in the sky.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead , and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.}}

    Etymology 2

    : (Sense 1) Abbreviation of overhead projector . : (Sense 2)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) An overhead projector.
  • (countable) A sheet of transparent material with an image used with an overhead projector; an overhead transparency.
  • English heteronyms

    profit

    English

    (wikipedia profit)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Total income or cash flow minus expenditures. The money or other benefit a non-governmental organization or individual receives in exchange for products and services sold at an advertised price.
  • * Rambler
  • Let no man anticipate uncertain profits .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits' to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: ' profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.}}
  • (dated, literary) Benefit, positive result obtained.
  • * Bible, 1 Corinthians vii. 35
  • This I speak for your own profit .
  • * Shakespeare
  • if you dare do yourself a profit and a right
  • (legal) In property law, a nonpossessory interest in land whereby a party is entitled to enter the land of another for the purpose of taking the soil or the substance of the soil (coal, oil, minerals, and in some jurisdictions timber and game).
  • Usage notes

    Regarding the income sense, when the difference is negative the term loss is correct. Negative profit does appear in microeconomics. Profit by a government agency is called a surplus.

    Synonyms

    * gain

    Antonyms

    * loss

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To benefit (somebody), be of use to (somebody).
  • * Bible, Hebrews iv. 2
  • The word preached did not profit them.
  • * Dryden
  • It is a great means of profiting yourself, to copy diligently excellent pieces and beautiful designs.
  • To benefit, gain.
  • To take advantage of, exploit, use.
  • Derived terms

    * book profit * for-profit * for fun and profit * nonprofit * not-for-profit * paper profit * profit from * profitable * profitably * profiteer * profit margin * profit sharing * profit taking