noun
-
something expended, such as time or money
-
the act of expending
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of expenditure
1760–70; < Medieval Latin expendit ( us ) laid out, paid (variant of expēnsus, past participle of expendere; see expend) + -ure
Explanation
In a trip budget, you need to add up all your expenditures, such as hotel, car rental and food costs against the money you have brought to spend. An expenditure is money spent on something. Expenditure is often used when people are talking about budgets. It is the government's job to decide what to do with tax money collected, or in other words, to determine the expenditure of public funds. The word is more than a long way of saying expense. In business, an expenditure implies an investment, something that will bring value over time.
Vocabulary lists containing expenditure
100 SAT Words Beginning with "E"
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Theodore Roosevelt on "New Nationalism" (1910)
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Economics
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This supports a higher resting energy expenditure, aiding long-term weight maintenance.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Downside risks include a slower-than-expected chip unit IPO, and faster-than-expected capital expenditure expansion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
It added that "considering all expenditure to date, and items currently identified to be addressed, a deficit of £9.7m is predicted".
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Perhaps the most fundamental authority of Congress is its “power of the purse”—the exclusive power conveyed by Article 1 of the Constitution to both impose taxes and control the expenditure of federal money.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
For myself, I found that I was expressing my tendency to lavish expenditure, and to patronise Herbert, and to boast of my great prospects, before I quite knew that I had opened my lips.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Note: Projections are for the personal-consumption expenditures price index.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Policymakers noted that economic activity had continued to expand at a "solid pace," but noted that business investment was concentrated in AI industry expenditures.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
We’ve already seen Big Tech names like Meta and Google erase user data and impose limits on virtual storage as A.I. expenditures balloon and memory becomes more expensive.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
That also translates to heavy capital spending, with third-quarter capital expenditures expected between $11.5 billion and $13.5 billion, “based on the significant amount of new capacity we will be delivering to customers,” Agrawal says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
There was talk now among the directors of seeking a $10 million appropriation from Congress, but the only immediate solution was to reduce expenditures.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
