Meaning & use
expenditure
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablefinance
The amount of money that a person, business or government spends, or the act of spending it.
Grammar: Uncountable for the act (expenditure on food) and countable for totals (annual expenditures).
Patterns
- expenditure on something
- expenditure of something
Government expenditure on schools rose by five percent.
The company cut its expenditure to avoid borrowing money.
Household expenditure on energy has climbed sharply.
noununcountable
The use of time, energy or effort for a purpose.
Grammar: Usually followed by of: the expenditure of effort.
Patterns
- expenditure of something
Climbing the hill demanded a great expenditure of energy.
The project required a heavy expenditure of time and patience.
Word forms
| plural | expenditures |
|---|
Common combinations
- government expenditure
- Government expenditure on health is rising.
- public expenditure
- Public expenditure was cut during the crisis.
- capital expenditure
- Capital expenditure covers new buildings and machinery.
- reduce expenditure
- The family reduced expenditure after the baby was born.
- expenditure on
- Expenditure on advertising doubled.
- income and expenditure
- Keep a record of your income and expenditure.
Synonyms and how they differ
- spending
- Spending is the everyday word, while expenditure sounds more formal and fits reports and accounts.
- outlay
- Outlay usually means a sum spent at the start for a purpose, such as setting up a business.
- expense
- An expense is a single cost, whereas expenditure is the overall act or total of spending.
- outgoings
- Outgoings, mainly British, means regular payments such as rent and bills.
Opposites
Word family
- expend verb
- to spend or use up
- expense noun
- a cost
- expensive adjective
- costing a lot
- expendable adjective
- not worth saving, so it can be used up or given up
Commonly confused: expenditure or expenses?
expenditure vs expenses
Expenses are the particular costs you incur, while expenditure is the overall amount spent.
Practice
The council plans to reduce its ___ on road repairs next year.
Choose one answer.
Expenditure on something is the money spent on it. Income is money coming in, and expedition and experience are unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “expenditure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.