procurement

American  

[proh-kyoor-muhnt, pruh‑] / proʊˈkjʊər mənt, prə‑ /

noun

procurements plural

1. the act of procuring, or obtaining or getting by effort, care, or the use of special means.

   The organ procurement procedure is very complicated.

2. the act of obtaining equipment, materials, or supplies.

   The secretary of defense argued in favor of increasing the budget for procurement.

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procurement British  

/ prəˈkjʊəmənt /

noun

1. the act or an instance of procuring

2. commerce

   1. the act of buying

   2. ( as modifier )

      procurement cost

      procurement budget

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Usage

What does procurement mean? Procurement most commonly refers to the formal, official process of purchasing and obtaining materials, supplies, or equipment, especially in the context of business or government. Many large companies and government agencies have a procurement department that handles the ordering and acquisition of supplies. Such a department is often simply referred to as procurement, as in You’ll have to ask procurement to order those materials. Procurement is the noun form of the verb procure. In general, procurement means the act of getting something, especially through special means or extra effort, as in The procurement of transplant organs is a complex process. Example: If someone says they work in procurement, it means they spend a lot of time navigating the supply chain to get what their company needs.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonprocurement
  noun
• self-procurement
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• procurements
  plural

Etymology

Origin of procurement

First recorded in 1300–50; procure ( def. ) + -ment ( def. )

Explanation

Procurement is the act of getting something you need. Save it for when you need to sound serious, like if you're in the military. Procurement is the noun form of the verb procure which means "to acquire," but procurement often has military connotations, such as: "The procurement of the weapons for the war is vital." It also means acquiring something that was extra hard to get, and you can use it when you want to sound formal: "I will work on the procurement of some more lemonade for all of us." Sound extra fancy by quoting the British poet John Dryden from way back in 1717: "They think it done/ By her procurement."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

procurement procurements

Dutch peer Royal Philips doesn’t compete in radio-oncology or positron emission tomography, but it is already seeing pressure through centralized procurement of ultrasound equipment, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

The chair Baroness Heather Hallett criticised the "vast" waste in pandemic procurement, amounting to two-thirds of the £14.9bn total the UK and devolved governments spent on PPE.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

Each company will manage procurement activities, evaluate comparable previous lunar landers, and apply lessons learned to improve mission reliability.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026

"Better planning would have resulted in fairer, faster and less costly procurement decisions."

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

New ore deposits were discovered in western New Mexico, and procurement officials expressed high hopes for a scheme to extract uranium from phosphate processed by fertilizer manufacturers in Florida.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

By mid-2020, Peng “was no longer merely influencing the front end of procurements; she was requesting and managing a series of high-dollar Innive change orders herself,” the complaint states.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026

The DPP budget includes up to about $30 billion of weapons procurements from the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

The extensive list of procurements ranged from missiles to artillery, torpedoes, armoured vehicles, satellite systems and new uniforms as Berlin races to overhaul the long-neglected Bundeswehr.

From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025

When asked whether it was struggling to find ports who would agree to moor the barges, the Home Office said it did not comment on "ongoing procurements".

From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2024

But for Brutus, his friends and countrymen, both by divers procurements, and sundry rumours of the city, and by many bills also, did openly call and procure him to do that he did.

From The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece by Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting)

Related Words

• acquisition