Macmillan Dictionary

Did you know?

Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word

expense

 - definition
 
 
 
Close

What are red words?

90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Close

Thesaurus

The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.

more
noun British English pronunciation: expense /ɪkˈspens/ 
Word Forms
Close
singularexpense
pluralexpenses
Other entries for this word
  1. 1
    British English pronunciation: expense /ɪkˈspens/  [countable] an amount of money that you spend in order to buy or do something

    Rent is our biggest expense.

    You can claim part of your telephone bill as a business expense.

    travelling/medical/legal expenses

    a factory's operating expenses

    incur an expense:

    The insurance will cover all expenses incurred during your time in hospital.

    cover/meet an expense:

    people struggling to meet their basic living expenses

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of expense
  2. 2
    [uncountable] the high cost of something

    A powerful computer is worth the expense if you use it regularly.

    expense of:

    the expense and inconvenience of recovering cargo from sunken ships

    go to great/considerable etc expense (=spend a lot of money):

    His parents went to great trouble and expense to make sure the party was a success.

    go to the expense of doing something (=spend money on doing something):

    We didn't want to go to the expense of sending a courier.

    put someone to the expense of doing something (=make someone spend money on doing something):

    That little mistake put us to the expense of reprinting the whole book.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of expense
  3. 3

    expenses

     [plural] money that you spend as part of your job that your employer later gives back to you

    The company pays all our expenses.

    put something on expenses (=charge it to your employer):

    Let me pay – I can put it on expenses.

    plus expenses:

    Your salary will be £50,000 a year, plus expenses.

    reimburse expenses:

    All reasonable expenses will be reimbursed.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of expense

phrases

See also

This is the British English definition of expense. View American English definition of expense.

Change your default dictionary and thesaurus to American English.

 

charticle

a news article that consists of a chart … and only has a small amount of text

BuzzWord Article

Word of the Day

tweet

the short high sound that a small bird makes

Open Dictionary

never event

an event that should never occur in a healthcare setting …

add a word

Blog

A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.

global English and language change from our blog