Meaning & use
pilferage
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Meanings
noununcountable
The stealing of small amounts of goods, often by people who handle them, such as workers or porters.
Grammar: Uncountable, so there is no plural: pilferage is a problem, not a pilferage.
Patterns
- pilferage from something
- pilferage of something
The warehouse installed cameras to cut down on pilferage.
Pilferage from shipping containers costs the port millions each year.
The shop owner blamed a rise in pilferage for the missing stock.
noununcountablebusiness
The amount or value of goods lost through this kind of petty theft.
Grammar: Often appears in business reports, with words like losses or write-off.
Annual pilferage was estimated at two percent of the inventory.
The company wrote off the pilferage as a cost of doing business.
Stricter checks reduced pilferage in the stockroom.
Common combinations
- prevent pilferage
- Locked cabinets help prevent pilferage.
- cargo pilferage
- Cargo pilferage is common in busy ports.
- employee pilferage
- Employee pilferage was behind most of the loss.
- reduce pilferage
- New seals on the boxes reduced pilferage.
- losses from pilferage
- Losses from pilferage rose last quarter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- theft
- Theft is the general word for stealing of any size, while pilferage suggests small, repeated thefts.
- petty theft
- Petty theft is a plain, everyday phrase for small stealing, while pilferage is more formal and usually about goods in transit or stock.
- shoplifting
- Shoplifting is stealing by customers from a store, but pilferage is more often done by people with access, such as staff.
- larceny
- Larceny is a legal term for theft of any amount, not limited to small items.
Word family
Commonly confused: pilferage or pillage?
pilferage vs pillage
Pillage means violent looting, often in war, on a large scale. Pilferage is quiet and small in scale.
Practice
The airline lost a small amount of goods every month as staff took items from the cargo hold. This is best described as which of these?
Choose one answer.
Pilferage means repeated theft of small amounts of goods. Pillage is violent and large scale, and embezzlement involves misusing money entrusted to you.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pilferage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.