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.

---

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

---

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

“PAC-3 was not originally designed from a manufacturability perspective,” Army procurement official Brent Ingraham said at a recent industry event.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Other announcements included a pledge to reindustrialise Britain through public procurement and to build more public housing.

From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026

Another challenge for Burnham if he does spend more on defence is reforming defence procurement - buying and developing planes, ships, vehicles and weapons - which has been historically wasteful.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

He also launched a series of reforms on procurement and air defence capacities but struggled to overcome Ukraine's everlasting mobilisation problems.

From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026

No sooner had Sherwood Butler, the laboratory’s head of procurement, set the final brick on a new building than his brother, Melvin, set about filling it with new employees.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

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