allowance
Americannoun
-
allowances
plural
-
the act of allowing.
-
an amount or share allotted or granted.
- Synonyms:
- allotment
-
a sum of money allotted or granted for a particular purpose, as for expenses.
Her allowance for the business trip was $200.
-
a sum of money allotted or granted to a person on a regular basis, as for personal or general living expenses.
The art student lived on an allowance of $600 a month.
When I was in first grade, my parents gave me an allowance of seven dollars a week.
- Synonyms:
- stipend
-
an addition or deduction based on an extenuating or qualifying circumstance.
an allowance for profit;
an allowance for depreciation.
-
acknowledgment; concession.
the allowance of a claim.
-
passive permission resulting from lack of interference; toleration.
the allowance of slavery.
- Synonyms:
- sufferance, permission, acceptance
- Antonyms:
- proscription, prohibition, interdiction
-
Machinery. a prescribed difference in dimensions of two closely fitting mating parts with regard to minimum clearance or maximum interference.
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Coining. tolerance.
verb (used with object)
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to place on a fixed allowance, as of food or drink.
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to allocate (supplies, rations, etc.) in fixed or regular amounts.
idioms
noun
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an amount of something, esp money or food, given or allotted usually at regular intervals
-
a discount, as in consideration for something given in part exchange or to increase business; rebate
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(in Britain) an amount of a person's income that is not subject to a particular tax and is therefore deducted before his or her liability to taxation is assessed
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a portion set aside to compensate for something or to cover special expenses
-
education a salary supplement given to a teacher who is appointed to undertake extra duties and responsibilities
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admission; concession
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the act of allowing; sanction; toleration
-
something allowed
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(usually foll by for)
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to take mitigating circumstances into account in consideration (of)
-
to allow (for)
-
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of allowance
1350–1400; Middle English alouance < Middle French. See allow, -ance
Explanation
When you're a kid, you might earn an allowance or a sum of money in exchange for doing chores around the house. Your parents' allowance — or tolerance — of your silly behavior will depend on how strict they are. An allowance is a quantity of something that's allowed or permitted within a set of rules or for a particular purpose. This could be a weekly allowance you earn as a kid, or it could be the allowance for passengers on a flight to have two carry-on items. To make allowances for someone means to treat someone leniently, or to give them a break.
Vocabulary lists containing allowance
Christopher Columbus' Diary: The First Voyage
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 16
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Shiloh
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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:
Should competing platforms adopt equivalent commitments, the overnight lockout would widen to 10 pm to 7 am and the daily allowance would fall to 60 minutes per app, capped at two hours in total.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
If competing platforms adopt equivalent commitments, the overnight block widens to 10:00 pm to 7:00 am and the daily allowance drops to 60 minutes per app, capped at two hours across all of them.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Older adults with diabetes in Medicare Advantage plans don’t have better health than those with traditional Medicare, even with extra benefits like a grocery allowance or a gym membership.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
While he formally becomes a prince, he will not receive a royal allowance.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
“I have twenty allowance dollars coming to me.”
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
It is fed by California’s cap-and-invest program, which allows large polluters to buy and sell allowances for their greenhouse gas emissions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The bloc said in 2021 that it would cut the number of emissions allowances on the market, sending their price soaring, which in turn helped drive up the price of power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
In a letter seen by BBC News NI, the body expressed concern to Stormont's communities minister that local councils "will not be as effective" unless allowances and conditions improve.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
They are usually non-refundable, with limitations on checked-luggage allowances and the opportunities to collect miles.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
We saved our weekly allowances in the fall, dropped the money in a little porcelain horse Baba had brought one time from Herat.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
The first album I ever bought with my own money, allowanced saved up for weeks, was “Long Hard Climb.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
Then don’t you ever go and say you were allowanced, mind that.”
From Dickens As an Educator by James L. (James Laughlin) Hughes
Accordingly I allowanced my men two pounds of beads monthly, and they went to distant villages and purchased their own provisions independently of me.
From The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Sir Samuel White Baker
Then don't you ever go and say you were allowanced, mind that.'
From The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
We found sugar scarce; butter scarce, and bread sharply allowanced in hotels and restaurants.
From The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me by William Allen White
And when the larger wood begins to grow scarce, what course does the peasant adopt?—The allowancing of individuals.
From The Place of Anarchism in Socialistic Evolution An Address Delivered in Paris by Henry Glasse
The Germans had been allowancing Recicourt to nine a day.
From The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me by William Allen White
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.
