Allowance

How to spell allowance

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce allowance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does allowance mean?

1. nounA sum of money given to someone regularly, often for a particular purpose.
2. nounThe amount of something that is officially permitted or set aside.
3. nounAn amount of tolerance or consideration made for a particular circumstance.

Allowance in a sentence

• Their teenage daughter saves half of her weekly allowance.

• The airline reduced its checked baggage allowance to a single bag.

• The schedule makes allowance for unexpected delays on the motorway.

• The company pays a monthly travel allowance to commuting staff.

• She stayed within her tax-free savings allowance for the year.

• The carpenter cut the timber with an allowance for shrinkage.

Where does allowance come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes through Old French alouer, a verb that actually merged two different Latin roots that had drifted together in sound: allaudare, meaning 'to praise', and allocare, meaning 'to place' or 'to allot'. The 'allot' strand is the one that survived into the modern sense, so an allowance was originally something formally granted or set aside for someone. English borrowed the verb 'allow' in the 1300s and built the noun 'allowance' soon after, with the familiar -ance ending that turns a verb into the name of an action or amount. The same allocare root gives us 'allocate', which is a handy reminder that an allowance is essentially an amount allocated to a person. The doubled 'l' that trips spellers up is inherited straight from the Latin prefix ad- (to) assimilating before the 'l', and the silent-feeling -ance, not -ence, is the trap most adults pause over.

How the word is built

• allow- (from Old French alouer: to permit, allot)
• -ance (noun suffix forming a state or amount)