allowance
Americannoun
-
allowances
plural
-
the act of allowing.
-
an amount or share allotted or granted.
- Synonyms:
- allotment
-
a sum of money allotted or granted for a particular purpose, as for expenses.
Her allowance for the business trip was $200.
-
a sum of money allotted or granted to a person on a regular basis, as for personal or general living expenses.
The art student lived on an allowance of $600 a month.
When I was in first grade, my parents gave me an allowance of seven dollars a week.
- Synonyms:
- stipend
-
an addition or deduction based on an extenuating or qualifying circumstance.
an allowance for profit;
an allowance for depreciation.
-
acknowledgment; concession.
the allowance of a claim.
-
passive permission resulting from lack of interference; toleration.
the allowance of slavery.
- Synonyms:
- sufferance, permission, acceptance
- Antonyms:
- proscription, prohibition, interdiction
-
Machinery. a prescribed difference in dimensions of two closely fitting mating parts with regard to minimum clearance or maximum interference.
-
Coining. tolerance.
verb (used with object)
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to place on a fixed allowance, as of food or drink.
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to allocate (supplies, rations, etc.) in fixed or regular amounts.
idioms
noun
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an amount of something, esp money or food, given or allotted usually at regular intervals
-
a discount, as in consideration for something given in part exchange or to increase business; rebate
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(in Britain) an amount of a person's income that is not subject to a particular tax and is therefore deducted before his or her liability to taxation is assessed
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a portion set aside to compensate for something or to cover special expenses
-
education a salary supplement given to a teacher who is appointed to undertake extra duties and responsibilities
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admission; concession
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the act of allowing; sanction; toleration
-
something allowed
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(usually foll by for)
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to take mitigating circumstances into account in consideration (of)
-
to allow (for)
-
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of allowance
1350–1400; Middle English alouance < Middle French. See allow, -ance
Explanation
When you're a kid, you might earn an allowance or a sum of money in exchange for doing chores around the house. Your parents' allowance — or tolerance — of your silly behavior will depend on how strict they are. An allowance is a quantity of something that's allowed or permitted within a set of rules or for a particular purpose. This could be a weekly allowance you earn as a kid, or it could be the allowance for passengers on a flight to have two carry-on items. To make allowances for someone means to treat someone leniently, or to give them a break.
Vocabulary lists containing allowance
Christopher Columbus' Diary: The First Voyage
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 16
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Shiloh
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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:
Should competing platforms adopt equivalent commitments, the overnight lockout would widen to 10 pm to 7 am and the daily allowance would fall to 60 minutes per app, capped at two hours in total.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Older adults with diabetes in Medicare Advantage plans don’t have better health than those with traditional Medicare, even with extra benefits like a grocery allowance or a gym membership.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
Another allowance: They believe that “the boundary between the imaginary and the real is anything but hermetically sealed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
After decades of working for big brands, most recently helping to launch the new Battersea Power Station, she's now on jobseeker's allowance.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
“Geez. Are you going to take away my allowance next and ground me for a month? For liking a boy?”
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
Edison is providing a $72 climate credit on summer electricity bills as a part of a California program that requires large facilities that produce greenhouse gas emissions to buy carbon pollution allowances.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Last month, the EU proposed to keep more allowances on the market over the next 15 years to ease the impact on industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
"Things are better after he re-introduced meal allowances," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
They are usually non-refundable, with limitations on checked-luggage allowances and the opportunities to collect miles.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Mr. Kreuk uses the ration allowances of the dead to stock up on supplies, then resells them at higher prices.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
The first album I ever bought with my own money, allowanced saved up for weeks, was “Long Hard Climb.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
But the timber will be allowanced, and the land parcelled out, to each household according to its needs, as soon as either becomes scarce, as is already the case in Russia.
From The Conquest of Bread by Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Prince
On the other hand, they will not stand being allowanced for tea, sugar, butter, or anything of the kind, and as a rule they fare in exactly the same style as their masters.
From Town Life in Australia by Richard Ernest Nowell Twopeny
Onct a week dey would come and dey allowanced 'em out pervisions.
From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XVI, Texas Narratives, Part 4 by United States. Work Projects Administration
Then don’t you ever go and say you were allowanced, mind that.”
From Dickens As an Educator by James L. (James Laughlin) Hughes
And when the larger wood begins to grow scarce, what course does the peasant adopt?—The allowancing of individuals.
From The Place of Anarchism in Socialistic Evolution An Address Delivered in Paris by Henry Glasse
The Germans had been allowancing Recicourt to nine a day.
From The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me by William Allen White
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.
