spending
6 synonyms and 3 antonyms for spending, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — The amount of money paid out by a person, business or government, considered as an activity or total.
Synonyms
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Antonyms
How to use spending
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
consumer spending
public spending
spending power
cut spending
Spending is the everyday word; expenditure is the formal accounting term. Both are uncountable in this sense.
Etymology
From Old English spendan, borrowed from Latin expendere meaning to pay out or weigh out.
Full origin of spending →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between spending and expenditure?
They mean the same thing. Spending is plain and general; expenditure is formal and appears in budgets, accounts and official statistics. Expenses, by contrast, means individual costs incurred, especially ones an employer reimburses.
Is spend correct as a noun?
It is established in marketing and finance, as in "total ad spend", and dictionaries record it. Outside those fields it can sound like jargon, so spending is the safer choice in general writing.
