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

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Etymology

Origin of expenditure

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

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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

"For the second consecutive session, the companies receiving the enormous capital expenditure cheques dramatically outperformed the businesses writing them. That is a potentially important development after last week's indiscriminate liquidation," he said.

From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026

Average expenditure per trip dropped to a four-year low during the holiday, according to Citi economists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026

The race also has received interest from outside groups, with Gaspar’s campaign receiving more than $2.7 million in independent expenditure spending.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

AI plays have derated, short positions must now be monetized and the upshot of the elections could be to actually accelerate capital expenditure rather than deter it.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026

In separate statements, the Retrenchment Committee urged the directors to make the committee permanent and invest it with the power to approve or deny every expenditure at the exposition, no matter how small.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Once miners unplug their mining rigs, they give up the daily crypto revenue that once helped sustain their capital expenditures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Oracle said it would use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, which could include capital expenditures and debt repayment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

The company noted in a filing that the proceeds will go toward “general corporate purposes,” including capital expenditures, debt repayments or future investments.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

Amazon has said it is planning to spend $220 billion on capital expenditures this year, largely to build AI data centers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

On small things I was thrifty enough; no expenditures on “carousing,” flashy clothes, or any of the other indulgences that are often smugly believed to undermine the budgets of the poor.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

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Related Words

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

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