"margin" vs "profit" in English

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Daniel Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/134423 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. What does the term margin mean in finance. Looking up the word margin in a dictionary gives: a sum deposited with a broker to cover the risk of loss on a transaction or account the profit made on a product or service But what does the term a profit margin mean then? (The first definition doesn't fit in this context. The second one turns ' a profit margin ' into ' a profit profit ')