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revenue

/ˈrevənuː//ˈrevənjuː/·noun
the total income a business or government takes in, before costs are subtracted
Fig. 1 — Coins come raining down out of the market and stack themselves into columns, and the columns line up into a rising bar chart — the very figure a company would put in its report.
01Definition

Revenue is the total money flowing into an organization — from sales, fees, or taxes — before any costs are taken out. It comes from the French revenir, 'to come back': value sent into the market returning as income. Students routinely confuse it with profit, yet revenue is only the top line. A firm's revenue can fluctuate sharply from one quarter to the next while its expenses quietly accumulate, so strong sales never guarantee that anything is left over at the end.

02In use
  • iThe streaming service reported record revenue last year, though every new purchase of content ate into it.
  • iiFalling oil prices caused the country's revenue to deplete faster than its budget could adapt.
  • iiiCoastal towns enjoy abundant revenue in summer, then must survive the lean winter months.
03Collocations
  • generate revenue
  • a sharp drop in revenue
  • revenue stream
  • tax revenue
  • boost annual revenue
  • revenue growth
04Relations

=income, earnings, proceeds, receipts, turnover

≠expenditure, expense, outlay

06TOEFL & IELTS

In IELTS Writing Task 1 you will often describe a graph of revenue over several years — rose, peaked, and fluctuated pair naturally with it. In TOEFL business lectures, examiners test whether you can separate revenue (money in) from profit (money left after costs). Treating the two as synonyms is a common slip; keeping them distinct signals precision. Note the uncountable use and collocations like generate / boost revenue.

07Asked
What is the difference between revenue and profit?
Revenue is the top line — all the money coming in before anything is taken out. Profit is what survives after costs are subtracted: the bottom line. A firm can post record revenue and still lose money if its expenses run higher. The scene above stops the count deliberately at the peak of the bar chart — the whole sum taken in, before a single cost has been removed.
Is revenue the same as income?
Not in careful accounting. Revenue is the gross intake from sales, fees or taxes; income usually means what is left after expenses — net income is another name for profit. Everyday speech blurs them, but a finance passage keeps them apart: revenue sits at the top of the statement, income (the profit) at the bottom, with all the costs in between.
What is the difference between revenue and turnover?
Mostly geography. Turnover is the British term for a company's total sales income over a period — the same figure Americans call revenue. British reports say 'annual turnover of £5m'; American ones say 'annual revenue'. Watch one false friend: turnover also means the rate at which staff leave (staff turnover), which has nothing to do with money.
What is a revenue stream?
A single source of income within a business — subscriptions, ads and merchandise are three revenue streams for one media company. The metaphor is deliberate: diversifying streams means the whole river does not run dry if one is dammed. This is also where the plural earns its keep: the normally uncountable revenue becomes countable revenues when you mean several distinct sources or jurisdictions.
What does tax revenue mean?
The money a government takes in from taxes — its equivalent of a company's sales income, and the top line of a national budget. IELTS Task 2 essays lean on it constantly ('governments should spend tax revenue on…'). The verb it wants is raise or generate: governments raise revenue through taxation, then set spending against it.