Meaning & use
prorate
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Meanings
verbtransitivebusiness
To work out a charge, payment or share in proportion to how much time or of something is actually used.
Grammar: Takes an object: prorate the fee.
Patterns
- prorate something
- prorate something by something
The landlord agreed to prorate the rent for the days you lived there.
Your insurer will prorate the refund based on the remaining months.
The gym will prorate your membership if you join mid-month.
verbtransitivefinancetechnical
To divide a total amount among people or items according to their shares.
Grammar: Often used in accounting about costs or costs shared.
Patterns
- prorate something among people
The partners prorate the expenses according to ownership.
The firm will prorate the bonus pool among employees.
They prorated the tax bill between the two buyers.
Word forms
| third person singular | prorates |
|---|---|
| past tense | prorated |
| past participle | prorated |
| -ing form | prorating |
Common combinations
- prorate the rent
- The landlord will prorate the rent for the first month.
- prorated refund
- You will receive a prorated refund.
- prorated salary
- Her prorated salary reflected a half-year of work.
- prorate on a daily basis
- Fees are prorated on a daily basis.
- prorate by days
- Insurers prorate by days remaining.
Synonyms and how they differ
- apportion
- Apportion means to divide and share out in a fair way, but it does not require an exact formula as prorate does.
- allocate
- Allocate means assign a share for a purpose, and may not be proportional like prorate.
- divide
- Divide is the general word, while prorate means dividing by a fixed proportion such as days or usage.
- pro rata
- Pro rata is the Latin phrase used as an adverb or adjective, whereas prorate is the verb.
Word family
Commonly confused: prorate or pro-rate?
prorate vs pro-rate
This is simply an alternative spelling with a hyphen; prorate is more common in current writing.
Practice
You move out on the 10th of a 30-day month. The landlord will ___ your rent, charging only for the days you stayed.
Choose one answer.
Prorate means charge in proportion to use. Postpone is a possible landlord action but it does not describe a proportional charge.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prorate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.