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

"The health and care system is highly interconnected, and reducing expenditure in one area can simply displace costs elsewhere, often into more expensive urgent and emergency care," it said.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2026

"They may experience wasting and an inability to eat, which can be due to changes in the brain's central drive, leading to loss of appetite and initiative, increased energy expenditure, and difficulties feeding themselves."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2026

"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

The Italian bank beat earnings expectations by 17%, driven by better revenue and lower-than-expected operating expenditure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026

He was teaching Johnny to ride as he did everything else—with a minimum expenditure of his own energy.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

The department will separately track Measure FD revenue, create dashboards to monitor all expenditures and provide quarterly reports to the City Council to ensure transparency, Moore said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2026

Big capital expenditures by the likes of Microsoft or Meta are written off against taxes immediately, yet expensed on the income statement over many years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

Capital expenditures refer to money spent on data-center infrastructure, equipment and other related assets.

From MarketWatch ● 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

Yet Burnham knew that such expenditures, as well as continued spending on police, garbage removal, and maintenance of roads and lawns, was vital.

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

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Related Words

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

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