expenditure

American  

[ik-spen-di-cher] / ɪkˈspɛn dɪ tʃər /

noun

• expenditures
  plural

1. the act of expending something, especially funds; disbursement; consumption.

2. something that is expended; expense.

   Unnecessary expenditures include those for luxury items.

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expenditure British  

/ ɪkˈspɛndɪtʃə /

noun

1. something expended, such as time or money

2. the act of expending

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• overexpenditure
  noun
• preexpenditure
  noun
• superexpenditure
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• expenditures
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of expenditure

1760–70; < Medieval Latin expendit ( us ) laid out, paid (variant of expēnsus, past participle of expendere; see expend) + -ure

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

expenditure expenditures

While stock-bond correlations have turned positive, an AI-led downturn would resemble a traditional negative demand shock, as weaker capital expenditure, softer hiring and declining household wealth weigh on spending and inflation, he adds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Birds that had not carried weights while growing up experienced a 23% increase in energy expenditure when walking with the added load compared with walking without it.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

It comes as semiconductor stocks have had a banner year amid hyperscalers boosting their artificial-intelligence capital expenditure to quickly fund the buildout of the tool as the race to dominate in the industry fuels on.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

"The panel is satisfied that Ms Campbell was not responsible for the inappropriate use of the charity's resources or any unjustified expenditure, nor did she contribute or facilitate it," they said.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

He was teaching Johnny to ride as he did everything else—with a minimum expenditure of his own energy.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

A key driver of expenditures was the rising interest paid on public debt, which jumped $144 billion to a record $1.36 trillion.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

And she pointed out that Raman, as head of the council’s powerful housing and homelessness committee, regularly signed off on the reports showing the expenditures on the mayor’s program.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

The inflation gauge that the Fed tracks, the personal-consumption expenditures price index, is forecast to cool to 2.4% by the end of 2027, from 3.5% at the end of this year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

While the term has no standard definition under accounting rules, free cash flow is typically calculated as cash flow from operating activities minus capital expenditures, or capex.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The present King of France has waged many wars without imposing extraordinary taxes on his subjects, only because his habitual parsimony has provided for the additional expenditures.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

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Related Words

• amount
• consumption
• cost
• disbursement
• expense
• figure
• investment
• outlay
• output
• price
• rate
• spending
• value

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