expense
Syllables: ex·pense/ɪkˈspɛns/
expense noun: a spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.
Noun
expense (countable and uncountable, plural expenses)
- A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.
- She went to great expense to ensure her children would get the best education.
- Buying the car was a big expense, but will be worth it in the long run.
- The elimination or consumption of something, sometimes with the notion of loss or damage to the thing eliminated.
- Jones reached the final at the expense of Smith, who couldn't beat him.
- Loss.
- And moan the expense of many a vanished sight.c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30
- Synonyms:
- cost, charge, outlay, disbursement, expenditure, payment
Verb
expense (third-person singular simple present expenses, present participle expensing, simple past and past participle expensed)
- To charge a cost against an expense account; to bill something to the company for which one works.
- It should be acceptable to expense a business lunch with a client.
- “Looking snazzy, Mr. Sarner.” “[screams] I have a body.” “Fucking hell. Yes, we brought you back to life.” “I was floating in the eternal glow for a million years. Safe, warm.” “You need to remember what you were going to say to the board of directors to justify expensing a ping ping table.” “I've...2023 August 14, Dominic Dierkes, “The Ping Pong Table” (17:50 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 4, episode 1, spoken by Korvo Opposites (Dan Stevens)
expense meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
expense in Hindi
- that which is expended, laid out, or consumed
- प्रयुक्त prayukt, उपभुक्त upbhukt
- a spending or consuming; disbursement; expenditure
- व्यय vyay, लागत lāgat, ख़र्च xarc
- loss
- हानि hāni, घाटा ghāṭā
expense in Tamil
- a spending or consuming; disbursement; expenditure
- செலவு celavu
expense in Urdu
- a spending or consuming; disbursement; expenditure
- خرچ xarc, خرچہ xarca, لاگت lāgat
expense in Bengali
- ব্যয়, খরচ, মূল্য, অর্থব্যয়, রাহাখরচ, পথখরচ
More languagesFewer languages
- expense in Telugu
- తగులుబడి tagulubaḍi
- expense in Malayalam
- പടി paṭi
- expense in Kannada
- ಹಣದ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಲೆ, ವೆಚ್ಚಮಾಡುವ ಹಣ, ಖರ್ಚುವೆಚ್ಚಗಳು, ಮುಟ್ಟುವಳಿ
- expense in Tagalog
- bayarin
- expense in Arabic
- صَرْف ṣarf, مَصْرُوف maṣrūf, مَصَارِيف maṣārīf
Examples of expense in a sentence
- The monthly financial statements show all the actual but only some of the accrued expenses.
- Last month less of my salary was taken up with household expenses.
- We can't employ a gardener as well as a handyman. Think of the expense!
Synonyms of expense
Forms of expense
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | expenses |
| alternative form (obsolete) | expence |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | expenses |
| present participle | expensing |
| past participle | expensed |
| past | expensed |
Origin of expense
From Middle English expense, from Anglo-Norman expense and Old French espense, from Late Latin expēnsa, from Latin expendō. See expend. Doublet of speso.
Words formed from expense
Phrases with expense
Words that rhyme with expense
Questions about expense
- What does expense mean?
- Expense means a spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.
- What is expense in Hindi?
- Expense in Hindi is प्रयुक्त (prayukt), उपभुक्त (upbhukt), व्यय (vyay). See Expense meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is expense?
- Expense can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce expense?
- Expense is pronounced /ɪkˈspɛns/.
- What is the plural of expense?
- The plural of expense is expenses.
Words near expense in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: expense (page history and authors); expense (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తగులుబడి (Telugu) (page history and authors); പടി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); expense (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: en-us-expense.ogg.
Cite this entry: “expense.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/expense. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.