allocate
Americanverb (used with object)
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allocates,
present (3rd person singular)
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allocated,
past participle, past
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allocating
present participle
verb
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to assign or allot for a particular purpose
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a less common word for locate
Synonym Usage
See assign.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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allocatornoun
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deallocateverb (used with object)
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reallocateverb (used with object)
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allocatableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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allocatesimple
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allocatessimple
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have allocatedperfect
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has allocatedperfect
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am allocatingprogressive
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are allocatingprogressive
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is allocatingprogressive
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have been allocatingperfect progressive
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has been allocatingperfect progressive
Past
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allocatedsimple
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had allocatedperfect
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was allocatingprogressive
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were allocatingprogressive
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had been allocatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of allocate
First recorded in 1630–40; from Medieval Latin allocātus (past participle of allocāre ), equivalent to al- al- + loc(us) “place” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To allocate is to set aside a certain amount of money for an expense. You usually hear about the government allocating funds for education or the military, but you may personally allocate some of your allowance to buying comic books. Aside from money, a common thing to allocate is time: "The old woman in the shoe had so many children she could only allocate 2.7 minutes per day to talk to each one individually." Resources are also often allocated. Teachers, for example, are continuously allocating their year's supply of resources so they don't run out of glue sticks and paper before the end of the school year.
Vocabulary lists containing allocate
Grade 9, List 6
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Nothing But the Truth
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It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
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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:
Dropping tens of thousands of dollars on a watch is a good way to curry favor with sales assistants who allocate Birkins to clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
That means you’d need to allocate about $11 a day to pay off your credit card.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
Washington, meanwhile, has announced plans to allocate $1 billion toward Colombia's security.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
But it also prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers this summer to allocate $40 million to help counties speed up the process.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Nor would he allocate good land to one man every year and bad land to another; rather, he would share these good things amongst all the people who lived over in that place.
From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith
County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a motion to hire a consultant to reevaluate how it allocates funds collected via a property tax instituted by Measure B, a 2002 ballot initiative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Situational attracted an investment from Jane Street, the big quant-trading firm that rarely allocates capital to outside money managers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
It was seen as a coup when Situational attracted institutional investors including quant trading firm Jane Street, which ranks among Wall Street’s most profitable firms and rarely allocates capital to outside managers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
They include the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, the growth in commercial and broadcast revenue Fifa has overseen, and a programme which allocates millions in funding directly to member countries every year.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
The San Francisco record is very precise, since it allocates each neophyte to his rancheria, or at least to the local region of his origin.
From The Aboriginal Population of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, California by Sherburne Friend Cook
The increases were directed at passenger vehicles filling up beyond their allocated quotas and come after Tehran already cut the monthly subsidized allocations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
A second officer subsequently allocated to the case did not get any further statements, and neither officer listened to a recording of an allegedly threatening voice message sent by Creswell, the Ombudsman said.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
“I have a lot of younger clients who have huge stock-option portfolios,” says Ringbauer, which is leading to prenup discussions about “not only what I have today but how it gets allocated for the future.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
Managing those limited supplies requires careful decisions about how water is stored, allocated, and shared.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
The housemen also resupplied the ground soldiers if they sold their allocated amount.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
Even a small discrepancy can require the account custodian to apply its own procedures for allocating any remaining amount.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
In 2021, Robinhood sought to give its users a bigger-than-normal chunk of its own IPO, allocating about 25% of its shares compared with a typical 10%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
By examining the organization of both biological brains and artificial neural networks, Imam and his colleagues found evidence that evolution may involve allocating a limited amount of brain space among competing wiring strategies.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
"That they are still allocating wildcards for them says something to their intrinsic value to the tournaments."
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The underlying reason why this transition was piecemeal is that food production systems evolved as a result of the accumulation of many separate decisions about allocating time and effort.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
