afford

[ uh-fawrd ]

/ əˈfɔrd /

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See synonyms for: afford / afforded / affording / affords on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)

to be able to do, manage, or bear without serious consequence or adverse effect: The country can't afford another drought.

to be able to meet the expense of; have or be able to spare the price of: Can we afford a trip to Europe this year? The city can easily afford to repair the street.

to be able to give or spare: He can't afford the loss of a day.

to furnish; supply: The transaction afforded him a good profit.

to be capable of yielding or providing: The records afford no explanation.

to give or confer upon: to afford great pleasure to someone.

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Origin of afford

First recorded before 1050; Middle English aforthen, iforthen, Old English geforthian “to further, accomplish,” equivalent to ge- y- + forth forth + -ian infinitive suffix

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH afford

accord, afford

Words nearby afford

affluential, affluent society, affluenza, afflux, affogato, afford, affordable, Affordable Care Act, affordance, afforded, afforest

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use afford in a sentence

The equal protection women enjoyed, according to the Supreme Court, wasn’t as strong as the protection that the Constitution afforded against racial discrimination.
Ginsburg’s Legal Victories For Women Led To Landmark Anti-Discrimination Rulings For The LGBTQ Community, Too|LGBTQ-Editor|September 24, 2020|No Straight News
At some point we can’t afford some of our employees because we don’t have money coming in from our clients.
‘How much do we want to get screwed?’: Confessions of an agency exec on lack of payment due to coronavirus|Kristina Monllos|September 24, 2020|Digiday
The most advanced AI techniques require an enormous amount of computational resources, which increasingly only the wealthiest companies can afford.
OpenAI is giving Microsoft exclusive access to its GPT-3 language model|Niall Firth|September 23, 2020|MIT Technology Review
His family could not afford to send his grandmother to a nursing home with services like physical therapy.
He Wanted to Fix Rural America’s Broken Nursing Homes. Now, Taxpayers May Be on the Hook for $76 Million.|by Max Blau for Georgia Health News|September 22, 2020|ProPublica

There’s a certain part of the public that can afford it, and those sort of people want to know where the product is coming from.
Allbirds is stepping up for the planet—by treading lightly on it|sheilamarikar|September 21, 2020|Fortune
The irony has thinned with the economy, perhaps: Who can really afford just to pretend to DIY today?
Glenn Beck Is Now Selling Hipster Clothes. Really.|Ana Marie Cox|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His stepfather had left his mother and they could no longer afford the house in which they lived.
Beaten By His Church for Being Gay|Justin Jones|December 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As a matter of dollars and cents, America in the short term may be able to afford disability and food stamps.
Bush, Christie, Romney: Who’ll Be the GOP Class Warrior?|Lloyd Green|December 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It represented everything about the kind of comfort and the little luxuries in life that a good glass of Scotch can afford us.
A Whisky Connoisseur Remembers That First Sip of The Macallan||December 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Selling off the extras, I saw my neighbor marvel at the scent and murmur that he wished he could afford one.
A Million Ways to Die in Prison|Daniel Genis|December 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I doubt if the modern community can afford to continue it; it certainly cannot afford to extend it very widely.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Here and there are left a few plants without having their tops broken off, in order that they may afford seeds for another year.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
Our gunners had put more than they could afford into the bombardment and had very little wherewith to pave the way.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton
Sensations were not so common in San Bernardino that they could afford to slight so notable an occasion as this.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
In some cases a small stained glass window is set in the side or front, but only rich men can afford this luxury.
Our Little Korean Cousin|H. Lee M. Pike

British Dictionary definitions for afford

afford

/ (əˈfɔːd) /

verb

(preceded by can, could, etc) to be able to do or spare something, esp without incurring financial difficulties or without risk of undesirable consequenceswe can afford to buy a small house; I can afford to give you one of my chess sets; we can't afford to miss this play

to give, yield, or supplythe meeting afforded much useful information

Derived forms of afford

affordable, adjectiveaffordability, noun

Word Origin for afford

Old English geforthian to further, promote, from forth forth; the Old English prefix ge- was later reduced to a-, and the modern spelling (C16) is influenced by words beginning aff-

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

afford

Origin of afford

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH afford

Words nearby afford

Words related to afford

How to use afford in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for afford

Derived forms of afford

Word Origin for afford