How to Use pay in a Sentence

pay

1 of 2 verb
  • The Rams returned in 2016, and the owner paid for the stadium.
    Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2023
  • Preti paid around that cost for her son's care and one-and-a-half times the rate if the nanny worked more than 40 hours.
    Madison Medeiros, Parents, 3 Dec. 2023
  • Angela and Stephen struggle to pay their bills and have doubts about their careers.
    Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2023
  • Members of the Discount Den program would pay $78 round-trip.
    Michael Cappetta, Travel + Leisure, 7 Feb. 2024
  • Aaron Rodgers must be starting for the promotion to kick in, and the Jets must lose for patrons to get their tab paid for.
    Jr Radcliffe, Journal Sentinel, 30 Aug. 2023
  • Note that this is typically when the lease transfer fee has to be paid.
    Jim Slavik, Car and Driver, 8 June 2023
  • But sometimes, that type of getaway doesn’t align with your schedule — or paid time off.
    Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 27 Oct. 2023
  • Businesses also pay armies of workers to fill out Captchas in bulk.
    Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 25 July 2023
  • Her realtor urged her to pay the holding deposit on the spot to secure the one-bedroom unit.
    Anna Cooban, CNN, 23 Sep. 2023
  • The next morning, Greenberg paid out nine hundred dollars to the girl and two other women.
    Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2024
  • And directors in streaming and pay TV were given an extra day to shoot one-hour shows.
    Gene Maddaus, Variety, 7 June 2023
  • For those who are not already Peacock subscribers, fans will have to pay $5.99 to start a subscription that will last a month.
    Jenny Goldsberry, Washington Examiner, 13 Jan. 2024
  • If the program was not there, that would mean small water systems would do all those tests themselves and likely pay more for it.
    The Arizona Republic, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Amelia Air, which does regular fundraisers, paid for the transport.
    Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2023
  • Waymo, which shares a parent company with Google, wants to pick up paying passengers in the city for the first time.
    David Ingram, NBC News, 5 Aug. 2023
  • To take advantage, travelers must pay the first cruise fare at full price.
    Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 19 Feb. 2024
  • The big tech giants Microsoft and Apple took the top two spots on the list for most dividends paid out amid a banner year for U.S. tech.
    Will Daniel, Fortune, 14 Mar. 2024
  • The transit agency resumed enforcement in the District last fall in the wake of a rise in passengers not paying fares.
    Justin George, Washington Post, 8 June 2023
  • On Monday, Parker's dearest friends and castmates turned to Instagram to pay tribute to the actress and her latest trip around the sun.
    Esther Kang, Peoplemag, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Tribe members pay a sliding fee to siphon water, depending on the size of their barrels — less than $10 for most customers.
    Tyrone Beason, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2024
  • But Matthew Stafford has been great at not only beating the blitz this year, but also making defenses pay for the gamble with big-time throws.
    Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press, 14 Jan. 2024
  • Houston firefighters make a fraction of the salaries paid to their counterparts in Dallas or Austin.
    Sam Russek, The New Republic, 20 June 2023
  • This new release is meant to pay tribute to the Macallan founder Alexander Reid and is the second edition of this ongoing series of high-end bottlings.
    Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Lee’s office also declined to explain how Lee is paying for his legal defense in the ethics case.
    Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2024
  • Prior to 2019, if a technician wasn’t certified, Ford wouldn’t pay for the repair, the whistleblower said.
    Detroit Free Press, 2 Mar. 2024
  • The judge also ordered the actor to attend 12 hours of traffic school, pay restitution, and visit a morgue to learn about the victims of reckless driving, per the NYT.
    Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 25 July 2023
  • Though the asking price is more than three times what was paid less than five years ago, a stately East Coast-style home a few doors down on just two oceanfront acres was sold last month for $47 million.
    Mark David, Robb Report, 28 Oct. 2023
  • But the question of how the companies would get people to use — and pay for — the expensive new technology has swirled around the industry for months.
    Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2023
  • The Disney Dining Plan is an optional add-on that can be selected and paid for ahead of your vacation.
    Carly Caramanna, Travel + Leisure, 8 June 2023
  • Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., must each pay a little over $4 million, plus interest, to the state for their shares of the Washington hotel sales.
    Michael R. Sisak, Fortune, 19 Feb. 2024
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pay

2 of 2 noun
  • Each pay period begins on the first of the month.
  • He has been suspended without pay pending the results of the investigation.
  • I took a significant pay cut when I took this job, but I think it was worth it.
  • Workers received a $4,000 pay increase.
  • Aaron Jones had to take a pay cut to remain with the Green Bay Packers.
    Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz, USA TODAY, 8 June 2023
  • The question would be his appetite to take a pay cut if the Dolphins ask.
    Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 8 Feb. 2024
  • The total pay shown is the sum of gross pay on state worker pay stubs for each year.
    Sacramento Bee Staff, Sacramento Bee, 24 Jan. 2024
  • Yes, the pay was better, but the health insurance was much worse.
    Weike Wang, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • The union wants to increase the salary floor for full-time lecturers, many of whom start at the bottom of the pay scale.
    Debbie Truong, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2023
  • The two unions first walked out together decades ago in the 1960s over pay issues.
    Chloe Berger, Fortune, 26 July 2023
  • Starting pay will be increased to $23 an hour during the life of the contract.
    Chris Isidore, CNN, 26 July 2023
  • This fall, voters could weigh in on whether to raise teacher pay.
    Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic, 3 Mar. 2024
  • The pay was low, but there were other factors that made the role appealing to her.
    Good Housekeeping, 16 May 2023
  • Before the deal, union leaders crafted a strike pay plan and picket lines across the Strip.
    Sahil Kapur, NBC News, 22 Nov. 2023
  • The latter was a line TV shows weren’t supposed to cross, even in the Wild West of turn of the century pay cable.
    Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 3 Jan. 2024
  • The rise in pay transparency overall has been fastest among white-collar jobs, the study shows.
    Natasha Solo-Lyons, Anchorage Daily News, 5 June 2023
  • The current goal is to run the pay guarantee program at a net neutral.
    Jaimie Ding, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2023
  • Evan Spiegel says the company’s My AI chatbot helped a user learn how to ask a boss for more pay.
    Nuha Dolby, WSJ, 20 June 2023
  • Striking workers are receiving $500 a week from the union’s strike pay fund.
    Tom Krisher, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Oct. 2023
  • The economic effects of such a sharp and sudden pay hike are unclear.
    Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024
  • It’s believed to be one of the largest classes ever suing under an equal pay act claim.
    Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Dec. 2023
  • Nigeria’s coach spoke up about equal pay and was criticized for his words.
    Sean Gregory, Time, 6 Aug. 2023
  • But some states are passing new pay policies to incentivize them to stay.
    Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 27 Mar. 2024
  • And the causes that the U.S. women are most derided on the right for supporting are racial justice and equal pay.
    Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 7 Aug. 2023
  • The tasks were menial — posting fliers or hanging signs in public spaces — and the pay meager.
    Mary Ilyushina, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2023
  • The limit can be a percentage of your annual pay or a flat dollar amount.
    Tanza Loudenback, wsj.com, 8 Jan. 2024
  • This is the first year the study has presented a question about a potential pay cut in exchange for working less.
    Detroit Free Press, 11 Jan. 2024
  • Employers are skimping on pay raises for workers Layoffs rose sharply in the first three months of the year Looking to get hired?
    Irina Ivanova, CBS News, 15 May 2023
  • But many Gen Zers aren’t giving up on their beliefs, finding a way to solve for what is often at odds in the modern economy: mission-alignment and good pay.
    Chloe Berger, Fortune, 8 Apr. 2024
  • Drivers for the two services have long asked for greater regulation of the rideshare industry in order to secure more protections and higher pay.
    Melvin Backman, Quartz, 8 Apr. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pay.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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