Meanings
- collectiveuncountablebusinessExperienced, well-informed investors, gamblers, etc. considered as a group.
If the smart money is so smart, why did it tell you what it's doing? If you're smart enough to know what the smart money thinks, then why aren't you keeping it a secret so you can cash in on it all by yourself?
2015, Jason Zweig, “smart money”, in The Devil's Financial Dictionary, PublicAffairs, →ISBN1 more example
First, we will try to understand the market using a simplified model focusing on the psychological perspective of two major groups: the smart money players who are assumed to be driving the market, and the general, uninformed public.
2012, Adam Grimes, The Art and Science of Technical Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 32Antonyms: dumb money
- uncountableThe money invested or bet by such people; by extension, the opinions of such people.
The smart money is on a half percent cut in the basic bank lending rates before the end of the week.
2 more examples
Simple game theory tells us that a process of backward induction should, really, at some point, induce the smart money to get out. And were that to happen, investors really should be prepared to lose everything.
2021 December 14, Richard Partington, quoting Thomas Belsham, “Bitcoin could become ‘worthless’, Bank of England warns”, in The GuardianAlthough the Department for Transport (to its credit) wants the GBR legislation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak does not. He doesn't see railways as a priority in the run-up to a General Election which the smart money says he will likely lose.
2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3Antonyms: dumb money
- uncountableMoney paid by a person to buy himself off from some unpleasant engagement or some painful situation.
- historicaluncountablegovernmentMoney allowed to soldiers or sailors, in the English service, for wounds and injuries received; also, a sum paid by a recruit, previous to being sworn in, to procure his release from service.
The reader may remember that Mr Allworthy gave Tom Jones a little horse, as a kind of smart-money for the punishment which he imagined he had suffered innocently.
1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC - uncountablelawVindictive or exemplary damages; damages beyond a full compensation for the actual injury done.
September 30 1893, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry, "Empolyers' Liability Bill", quoted in The Parliamentary Debates it made was paid by employers to workmen employers liable for injuries resulting as smart money
Synonyms & antonyms
nounExperienced, well-informed investors, gamblers, etc. considered as a group.
nounThe money invested or bet by such people; by extension, the opinions of such people.
More synonyms by meaning
noun(law) compensation in excess of actual damages (a form of punishment awarded in cases of malicious or willful misconduct)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
smart money. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smart%20money
“smart money.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smart%20money. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smart money,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smart%20money.
Source: smart money on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.