expense
pronunciation
How to pronounce expense in British English:
UK [ɪkˈspens]
How to pronounce expense in American English:
US [ɪkˈspens]
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- Noun:
- amounts paid for goods and services that may be currently tax deductible (as opposed to capital expenditures)
- a detriment or sacrifice
- money spent to perform work and usually reimbursed by an employer
Word Origin
- expense (n.)
- also formerly expence, late 14c., "action of spending or giving away, a laying out or expending," also "funds provided for expenses, expense money; damage or loss from any cause," from Anglo-French expense, Old French espense "money provided for expenses," from Late Latin expensa "disbursement, outlay, expense," noun use of neuter plural past participle of Latin expendere "to weigh out money, to pay down" (see expend). Latin spensa also yielded Medieval Latin spe(n)sa, the sense of which specialized to "outlay for provisions," then "provisions, food" before it was borrowed into Old High German as spisa and became the root of German Speise "food," now mostly meaning prepared food, and speisen "to eat." Expense account is from 1872.
- expense (v.)
- 1909, from expense (n.). Related: Expensed; expensing.
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. But it comes at the expense of debt sustainability .
- 2. This cheap borrowing comes at the expense of depositors .
- 3. My husband can expense most of his lunches for work .
- 4. But critics grumble that the plan protects shareholders at the expense of taxpayers .
- 5. One drawback of global mobility is its expense .