installment
1 Americannoun
-
Finance. any of several parts into which a debt or other sum payable is divided for payment at successive fixed times; the scheduled periodic payment made on an installment loan.
to pay for furniture in monthly installments.
-
a single portion of something furnished or issued by parts at successive times.
a magazine serial in six installments.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of installment1
First recorded in 1770–75; in- 2 + obsolete (e)stallment, equivalent to estall “to arrange payment on an installment plan” (perhaps from Anglo-French ) + -ment
Origin of installment2
Explanation
An installment is a part or section of something, like the monthly installment you pay on your credit card debt or the latest installment of your favorite TV show. "Partial payment" is the oldest meaning of this word, and it's still a common way to use it: "She sold me the bike and I'm paying her in installments." It's also used for anything split into sections or episodes. Your favorite serialized comic comes out in installments every three months, but you only have to wait a day for the next installment of that afternoon soap opera!
Vocabulary lists containing installment
All My Rage
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Chapter 25: The Jazz Age
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Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
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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.
With the latest installment of the Milan derby to be shown live on BBC Two and iPlayer on Saturday, 19:45 GMT kick-off, BBC Sport remembers the story of the fixture's most iconic image.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
A ‘Secrets of the Dead’ installment revisits how the Statue of Liberty came to stand in New York Harbor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
An installment sale or promissory note could certainly make that happen, but I’d be wary of stretching payments out that far just to protect Son #2 in case of divorce.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
The show attracted nearly 7 million viewers — a 10% decline compared with the 2025 installment, which aired on CBS.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
They bought an electric refrigerator on the installment plan, and Antonapoulos would suck the cubes of ice constantly and even let a few of them melt in bed with him as he slept.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
