expenditure

American  

[ik-spen-di-cher] / ɪkˈspɛn dɪ tʃər /

noun

• expenditures
  plural

1. the act of expending something, especially funds; disbursement; consumption.

2. something that is expended; expense.

   Unnecessary expenditures include those for luxury items.

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expenditure British  

/ ɪkˈspɛndɪtʃə /

noun

1. something expended, such as time or money

2. the act of expending

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• overexpenditure
  noun
• preexpenditure
  noun
• superexpenditure
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• expenditures
  plural

Etymology

Origin of expenditure

1760–70; < Medieval Latin expendit ( us ) laid out, paid (variant of expēnsus, past participle of expendere; see expend) + -ure

Explanation

In a trip budget, you need to add up all your expenditures, such as hotel, car rental and food costs against the money you have brought to spend. An expenditure is money spent on something. Expenditure is often used when people are talking about budgets. It is the government's job to decide what to do with tax money collected, or in other words, to determine the expenditure of public funds. The word is more than a long way of saying expense. In business, an expenditure implies an investment, something that will bring value over time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

expenditure expenditures

Perhaps the most fundamental authority of Congress is its “power of the purse”—the exclusive power conveyed by Article 1 of the Constitution to both impose taxes and control the expenditure of federal money.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

Overall government expenditure to be proposed for 2027 will reach NT$3.9 trillion, which Lai said was more than double its 2016 level.

From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026

The miner kept its cash cost and capital expenditure guidance unchanged.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

It said that revenue had grown by £6.3bn to £98.3bn, an increase of 6.9%, while there was a slower growth in expenditure, which rose by £5.7bn to £123.6bn - an increase of 4.8%.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

For myself, I found that I was expressing my tendency to lavish expenditure, and to patronise Herbert, and to boast of my great prospects, before I quite knew that I had opened my lips.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

The Federal Reserve, which aims to keep inflation at 2%, focuses on another inflation measure entirely: the personal-consumption expenditures price index, which is published by the Commerce Department.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

That also translates to heavy capital spending, with third-quarter capital expenditures expected between $11.5 billion and $13.5 billion, “based on the significant amount of new capacity we will be delivering to customers,” Agrawal says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Capital expenditures for the quarter reached $9.4 billion, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $8.2 billion.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

In addition to earning more, non-tech companies are also starting to see a pickup in spending on capital expenditures — major projects intended to grow their businesses.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

Claudia appointed him treasurer; he would not only hold all the money, he would also keep track of it and pass judgment on all expenditures.

From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg

Related Words

• amount
• consumption
• cost
• disbursement
• expense
• figure
• investment
• outlay
• output
• price
• rate
• spending
• value