expendable
/ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/
expendable adjective: able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
Adjective
expendable (comparative more expendable, superlative most expendable)
- Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
- Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.
- Synonyms:
- exhaustible, finite, limited
- Designed for a single use; not reusable.
- The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.
- Synonyms:
- dispensable, disposable, throwaway
- Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.
- The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.
- Synonyms:
- adjunct, dispensable, redundant, superfluous
- Regarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.
- In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
- He was expendable, like commodities past their use.1997, G. Cajetan Luna, Youths Living with HIV: Self-Evident Truths, page 10
- Synonyms:
- collateral, inconsiderable, sacrificable, worthless
Noun
expendable (plural expendables)
- An expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.
- Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.
expendable meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
expendable in Tamil
- இழக்கத்தக்க, செலவிடத்தக்க
expendable in Malayalam
- non-essential, dispensable, replaceable
- കൊടുക്കത്തക്ക, ഒഴിവാക്കാവുന്ന, വേണ്ടെന്നു വയ്ക്കാവുന്ന, ആവശ്യമില്ലാത്ത, ഉപരിപ്ലവമായ, അധികപ്പറ്റായ
- disposable, throw-away, one-use
- ഉപേക്ഷിക്കാവുന്ന, ആവശ്യം കഴിഞ്ഞാൽ വലിച്ചെറിയുന്ന, എറിഞ്ഞുകളയാവുന്ന, ഒറ്റപ്രാവശ്യം ഉപയോഗിക്കാവുന്ന, ഒരുതവണമാത്രം ഉയോഗിക്കത്തക്ക
expendable in Kannada
- ಬಳಸಬಹುದಾದ, ವ್ಯಯಮಾಡಿ ಬಿಡುವಂಥ, ಅನಗತ್ಯವಾದ, ಎಸೆಯಬಹುದಾದ, ನಾಶ ಪಡಿಸಬಹುದಾದ, ಅಸಂರಕ್ಷಣೀಯ
Examples of expendable in a sentence
- We're expendable, even more so than the average Rim Runner officer.
- The world is filled with doodleheads who think that any program which isn’t theirs is expendable.
- An expendable rocket will launch a robotic vehicle, Astrobot, equipped with manipulators and the experimental equipment.
Synonyms of expendable
- exhaustible
- finite
- limited
- dispensable
- disposable
- throwaway
- adjunct
- redundant
- superfluous
- collateral
3 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of expendable
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more expendable |
| superlative | most expendable |
| Noun | |
| plural | expendables |
Origin of expendable
From expend + -able.
Words formed from expendable
Questions about expendable
- What does expendable mean?
- Expendable means able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
- What is expendable in Tamil?
- Expendable in Tamil is இழக்கத்தக்க, செலவிடத்தக்க. See Expendable meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is expendable?
- Expendable can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce expendable?
- Expendable is pronounced /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/.
Words near expendable in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: expendable (page history and authors); expendable (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); expendable (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); expendable (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-expendable.wav.
Cite this entry: “expendable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/expendable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.