afford
Americanverb (used with object)
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affords,
present (3rd person singular)
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afforded,
past participle, past
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affording
present participle
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to be able to do, manage, or bear without serious consequence or adverse effect.
The country can't afford another drought.
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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.
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to be able to give or spare.
He can't afford the loss of a day.
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The transaction afforded him a good profit.
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to be capable of yielding or providing.
The records afford no explanation.
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to give or confer upon.
to afford great pleasure to someone.
verb
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to be able to do or spare something, esp without incurring financial difficulties or without risk of undesirable consequences
we 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
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to give, yield, or supply
the meeting afforded much useful information
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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affordsimple
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affordssimple
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have affordedperfect
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has affordedperfect
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am affordingprogressive
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are affordingprogressive
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is affordingprogressive
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have been affordingperfect progressive
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has been affordingperfect progressive
Past
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affordedsimple
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had affordedperfect
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was affordingprogressive
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were affordingprogressive
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had been affordingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
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
Explanation
To afford means you have enough money or time for something. If you only have ten dollars on you, you can't afford to buy a twenty-dollar hat. Afford is a verb that has to do with means. You either have a surplus and therefore can afford something, or else you have a deficit and can’t. It can be in the monetary sense: "$100 for cashmere socks? I can’t afford that!” It can also refer to time: “Since my train wasn't scheduled to leave for another hour, I could afford to wait for my sister ten more minutes.” Or even access: “The castle walls afforded a wonderful view of the moat.”
Vocabulary lists containing afford
"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 1
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Purple Hibiscus
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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:
Working parents 'struggling to afford nappies or food'
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
If they can’t afford an Hermès bag or another pair of Chanel flats, they might just splurge on a different kind of status symbol.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
“Students who prefer physical textbooks should absolutely retain the option to purchase them, but students who cannot afford a printed book should have another way to access the materials they need to succeed,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
They still carry the risk of variability over the life of the loan, but lower introductory rates have made ARMs attractive for buyers struggling to afford fixed rates in today’s housing market.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Guilt over having shoes he knew they couldn’t afford and loving them anyway.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The Baku street circuit has a long straight that affords good overtaking possibilities and has a reputation for producing incident-packed races.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
But the nature of Dans’ role affords him more leeway than other appointees.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
When the shipping company finally wheels away the crates, Drolma affords herself a smile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
That affords the opportunity “to make more changes without it being more impactful to the remaining members.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming, “Is not this nice? Is not this an agreeable surprise?”
From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
Jane Doe also alleged in her civil lawsuit that Cornell did not protect her nor adequately punish the men involved, alleging they were "afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays".
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Dawson was helped by the combination of turn and bounce on offer from the surface, something Ahmed was not afforded earlier in the series.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
She said some buyers who could have afforded homes up to $600,000 at the beginning of the year are now thinking of spending closer to $500,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The setup has afforded Rushing more regular at-bats than initially expected when the Dodgers activated him this week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
The Brooklyn Chess Club only afforded him the chance to play on Friday nights and an occasional Tuesday—the two nights of the week they met—for a total of about four hours on any given evening.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
The beats are the ideal accompaniment for Ms. Badu in her experimental mode, affording her space to work through her range of vocal styles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
In Jackson’s words, “Congress could not have meant for the guarantees it was affording to be so cavalierly swept aside.”
From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026
Bolivia's Juan Carlos Prado Angelo, who reached his first Grand Slam main draw at Roland Garros, says affording travel is "very difficult for every player" from South America.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
“The first days at home with a newborn should be focused on the love, connection, and joy of an expanded family, not stress about affording diapers,” Johnson said in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
It would be the first time that such priceless financial data had fallen into an economist’s hands, affording an analysis of a heretofore uncharted criminal enterprise.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
