Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

capital expenditure

American  

noun

Accounting, Finance.
  1. an addition to the value of fixed assets, as by the purchase of a new building.


capital expenditure British  

noun

  1. expenditure on acquisitions of or improvements to fixed assets

"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

capital expenditure Cultural  
  1. The purchase of an asset by a firm.


Etymology

Origin of capital expenditure

First recorded in 1895–1900

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:

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet next week, or in the Middle East — the market’s best hope for big upside is a peak in hyperscaler capital expenditure, the strategists say.

From MarketWatch Sep. 18, 2026

While they are not worried about 2027 earnings per share, they expressed concerns that AI capital expenditure would slow, eating into 2028 earnings.

From MarketWatch Sep. 15, 2026

The bank expects aggregate advanced packaging capacity to grow about 50% in 2028, even as cloud service provider capital expenditure rises a more modest 12%.

From The Wall Street Journal Sep. 11, 2026

Inari has set aside 450 million ringgit in capital expenditure, mainly for optical-photonics processing and plant expansion, he notes.

From The Wall Street Journal Sep. 10, 2026

Machinery required additional capital expenditure, and steam power must be used on a large scale if it was to be profitable.

From A Short History of English Liberalism by Walter Lyon Blease

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training