follow the money

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Investigate financial transactions to understand motivations or uncover wrongdoing

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

điều tra giao dịch tài chính để hiểu động cơ hoặc phát hiện sai phạm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: trail of money
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The detective followed the money to find the corrupt official

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “follow the money” mean?

Investigate financial transactions to understand motivations or uncover wrongdoing Literally: trail of money

Is “follow the money” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.