Meaning & use
pay dirt
A valuable or profitable discovery, especially one found after a long search or effort.
See it in a sentence
After months of research, the scientists finally struck pay dirt with a breakthrough result.
The prospectors dug for weeks before hitting pay dirt in the riverbed.
A note on using this word
The phrase almost always appears with the verb hit or strike, as in hit pay dirt, and comes originally from mining language for ground rich in ore.
Words with a similar meaning
jackpotbonanza
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
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