endowment
Americannoun
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the source of income with which an institution, etc, is endowed
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the income itself
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the act or process of endowing
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(usually plural) natural talents or qualities
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of endowment
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Anglo-French endowement; equivalent to endow + -ment
Explanation
An endowment is a gift. It might be money given to an institution like a college. Or, an endowment might be a natural gift, say of a physical attribute or a talent. If you lack the endowment of musical talent, you could play the tambourine. To endow means "to give or bequeath," and the background of the word endowment goes back to the 15th Century, where it was used to refer to money or property that is given to an institution. An example can be found in the National Endowment for the Arts, an organization dedicated to providing grants to fund artistic endeavors. Your natural endowments — speed, agility, endurance — make you an excellent soccer player. If only you could wake up in time for practice.
Vocabulary lists containing endowment
Giving Words
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The Federalist Papers, No. 10 by James Madison
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The Glass Menagerie
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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:
The risk was exacerbated because the school has a relatively small endowment for a university of its size.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
He also introduced him to the chief of Princeton’s endowment, who invested $10 million in Thrive’s first institutional fund.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
A national brand-name institution with a $2.5 billion endowment and a storied 150-year tradition is suddenly beginning to flail.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Even Harvard’s endowment was revealed to hold $2.2 billion in SpaceX shares as of the end of the second quarter.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
The regents’ breath was taken away by Lawrence’s audacious request for funds at a time when the stock market crash still weighed on the university endowment.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
College leaders are cutting programs, laying off faculty—and digging into endowments to pay operating expenses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
The moves signal a more aggressive effort by Gulf governments to generate returns from their natural-resource endowments, the ratings agency says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
“What happened during that period was that a consensus emerged,” Eustis said, noting that it was expressed in the form of national endowments, state arts agencies, public policy institutes and corporate philanthropic departments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Limited partner investors in the pool include pension funds, endowments, insurers and other institutions, Arctos said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
His father was a successful insurance executive, so life was always comfortable, and Edwin enjoyed a wealth of physical endowments, too.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
