Meaning & use
depreciate
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Meanings
verbintransitivefinance
To become worth less money as time passes, usually because of age, wear or market changes.
Grammar: No object: the car depreciates quickly.
Patterns
- depreciate in value
- depreciate by an amount
New cars depreciate sharply in their first year.
The currency depreciated against the dollar after the election.
Computers tend to depreciate faster than furniture.
verbtransitivebusinesstechnical
In accounting, to spread the cost of an asset across the years in which it is used.
Grammar: Takes an object: depreciate the machinery over ten years.
Patterns
- depreciate something over a period
The company depreciates its delivery vans over five years.
You can depreciate the equipment for tax purposes.
verbtransitiveformalold-fashioned
To speak of something as having little value or importance.
Grammar: Takes an object: depreciate someone's efforts.
Patterns
- depreciate something
She never depreciated the work of her assistants.
Critics tried to depreciate his achievements.
Word forms
| third person singular | depreciates |
|---|---|
| past tense | depreciated |
| past participle | depreciated |
| -ing form | depreciating |
Common combinations
- depreciate in value
- Most electronics depreciate in value within months.
- depreciate rapidly
- Luxury cars often depreciate rapidly.
- depreciating asset
- A van is a depreciating asset for a small business.
- depreciate against the dollar
- The peso depreciated against the dollar last quarter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lose value
- Lose value is the plain everyday phrase, while depreciate sounds more technical and suggests a gradual, expected decline.
- devalue
- Devalue often implies a deliberate act, such as a government lowering its currency, whereas depreciate usually happens by itself.
- decline
- Decline is general and can describe health or quality, while depreciate is mainly about money.
Opposites
Word family
- depreciation noun
- a fall in value, or the accounting method for spreading an asset's cost
- depreciable adjective
- able to be depreciated for accounting purposes
- depreciatory adjective
- expressing a low opinion of something, a rare formal word
Commonly confused: depreciate or deprecate?
depreciate vs deprecate
Deprecate means to disapprove of or, in computing, to discourage use of something; it has nothing to do with a drop in price.
Practice
A laptop will usually ___ much faster than a house.
Choose one answer.
Depreciate means lose value over time, which fits a laptop. Appreciate is the opposite, and deprecate is a different word meaning to disapprove of.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “depreciate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.