investments

IPA/ɪnvˈɛstmənts/
KK[ˌɪnvˈɛstmənts]IPA/ˌɪnvˈɛstmənts/

investments — noun

1. amounts of money, time, or effort that someone puts into a project, business, or

1.nounB1
Definition

amounts of money, time, or effort that someone puts into a project, business, or activity in the hope of gaining a benefit, profit, or other valuable result later on

Example

Ada moved most of her investments into safer government bonds last year.

collocation: move investments into [asset type]

The Watanabe family lost a lot of money on bad property investments during the 2008 crash.

collocation: bad / risky investments

Common collocations
  • make investments
  • lose investments
  • diversify investments
  • property investments
  • long-term investments
  • risky investments
  • foreign investments
Synonyms
  • holdings

    specifically the assets (shares, property) someone owns, not the act of buying them

  • stakes

    shares of ownership in a business, usually with influence implied

  • contributions

    wider sense — money or effort given, not always expecting financial return

Antonyms
  • divestments

    the opposite act — selling off assets rather than acquiring them

  • withdrawals

    removing money from an account or fund, undoing an investment

Grammar Patterns

investments in [thing/area]

make investments

investments + return/profit/loss

Usage Note

Plural form covers both the act of investing repeatedly and the specific assets or efforts themselves; choose 'investment' (singular) when naming a single deal or amount, and 'investments' when grouping several together or talking about a portfolio.

Common Mistakes

She has many investment in real estate.
She has many investments in real estate.
when several separate deals or assets are meant, the countable plural 'investments' is required.
He made investments to the start-up.
He made investments in the start-up.
the preposition is 'in', not 'to', when naming the thing or area receiving the money.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words name what someone puts into or owns within a venture, but they differ in scope and emphasis. 'Investments' is the broadest everyday term, covering both the act of placing money, time, or effort somewhere and the resulting assets, as in 'her investments in renewable energy'. 'Holdings' is narrower and more financial — it names the assets themselves (shares, property, bonds) that a person or fund owns, not the act of buying them: a bank may list its 'holdings' but rarely its 'investments of effort'. 'Stakes' implies a share of ownership in a specific business and often carries the sense of influence or interest, as in 'a controlling stake in the company'. 'Contributions' is the loosest of the four; it can mean money or effort given without any strong expectation of financial return, common in non-profit and team contexts.

investments ↗holdingsstakes ↗contributions ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • make investments in
  • diversify one's investments
  • long-term investments
  • short-term investments
  • foreign direct investments

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinItalianEnglish

From the verb 'invest', which entered English in the late 1500s from the Latin 'investire', meaning to clothe or surround. The financial sense developed in the early 1600s through Italian commercial usage, where putting money into a venture was pictured as 'clothing' it in a new purpose. The plural noun 'investments' became common in English business writing from the late 1700s as joint-stock companies and overseas trade grew.