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Meaning & use

expense

noun, phrase·Everyday

Last updated

UK/ɪkˈspens/
US/ɪkˈspens/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable or uncountable

    Money spent to buy, do, or keep something; a cost that must be paid.

    Grammar: Use an expense for one cost; use expense in general statements about cost.

    Patterns

    • cover an expense
    • business expenses
    • at great expense
    • the expense of doing something

    Rent is our biggest monthly expense.

    The company reimbursed her travel expenses.

    They rebuilt the house at great expense.

  2. phraseidiom

    Shows one thing is gained by harming or reducing something else in the idiom at the expense of.

    Grammar: Fixed pattern: at the expense of + noun or gerund.

    Patterns

    • at the expense of health
    • at the expense of quality
    • succeed at the expense of someone

    He earned a promotion at the expense of his sleep.

    The team won at the expense of fair play.

    Cheap production should not come at the expense of safety.

Word forms

pluralexpenses

Common combinations

living expenses
Students must plan for food, rent, and other living expenses.
business expenses
Keep receipts for all business expenses.
at the expense of
She refused to succeed at the expense of her family.
go to great expense
They went to great expense to make the wedding simple and warm.

Synonyms and how they differ

cost
Cost is the everyday word for what must be paid; expense often fits budgets, records, or formal accounts.
expenditure
Expenditure is formal and often describes total spending by a person, company, or government.
outlay
Outlay suggests an initial amount of money invested or spent to start something.
charge
Charge is a price asked for a service or item, not necessarily money already spent.

Opposites

incomerevenue

Word family

expensive adjective
Costing a lot of money.
expend verb
To spend money, time, or energy.
expenditure noun
The act or amount of spending.
expensively adverb
In a costly way.

Commonly confused: expense or expanse?

expense vs expanse

Expanse means a wide stretch of space or land; expense means money spent.

Practice

Choose the best completion: The hotel was cheap, but not ___ comfort.

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