lucre

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 7
Words With Friends: 10
Letters: 5

Pronunciation

/ˈluːkə/

See all 5 pronunciations

/ˈluːkə/ · /ˈljuːkə/ · /ˈluːkɚ/ · /ˈlʉkəɾ/ · /ˈlʉkəɹ/

Definition of lucre

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

(uncountable)Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.

“A Biſhop then muſt be blameleſſe, the huſband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behauiour, giuen to hoſpitalitie, apt to teach; / Not giuen to wine, no ſtriker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not couetous; […]”
“By-ends and Silver-Demas both agree; / One calls, the other runs, that he may be / A ſharer in his lucre; ſo theſe two / Take up in this World, and no further go.”
“[…] [I]t's only fair that you should pocket the lucre. I've had my share already.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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)).