payroll

• pay roll

From pay +‎ roll.

• enPR: pā′rōl′
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪˌɹəʊl/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪˌɹoʊl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɪ̯ˌɹəʉl/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɪ̯ˌɹɐʉl/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈpeˌɹol/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈpeːˌɾoːl/
• Rhymes: -eɪɹəʊl
• Hyphenation: pay‧roll

payroll (plural payrolls)

2. A list of employees who receive salary or wages, together with the amounts due to each.
   • 2025 June 27, Michael M. Grynbaum, “The Concorde-and-Caviar Era of Condé Nast, When Magazines Ruled the Earth”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 June 2025:

     Magazines kept aristocrats on the payroll to facilitate access to jet-set playgrounds like Corfu and Mustique.

3. The total sum of money paid to employees.
4. (accounting) The calculation of salaries and wages and the deduction of taxes etc.; the department in a company responsible for this.
5. (euphemistic) Bribes paid to people.
   • 1957, Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged:

     I know that the deal started with the boys in Santiago, because they’ve been on the d’Anconia pay roll for centuries — well, no, ‘pay roll’ is an honorable word, it would be more exact to say that d’Anconia Copper has been paying them protection money for centuries — isn't that what your gangsters call it?

   • 1972, The Godfather, spoken by Michael Corleone:

     We can spread a rumor this cop was dirty. Look, Tom, we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we?

• (list): paysheet

• payslip

payroll (third-person singular simple present payrolls, present participle payrolling, simple past and past participle payrolled)

1. (transitive) To place on a payroll (sense 1).
   • 1985, The Code of Federal regulations of the United States of America, page 37:

     Grantees may elect to payroll the enrollees through their own payroll system if the payroll system is consistent with regulations contained herein.

• polarly