Balance

How to spell balance

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce balance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does balance mean?

1. nounA state of physical steadiness in which weight is evenly distributed.
2. nounThe amount of money remaining in an account after debits and credits are tallied.
3. verbTo keep or put something in a steady or evenly weighted position.

Balance in a sentence

• noun

  She lost her balance on the icy step and grabbed the rail.

• noun

  He checked the balance in his savings account before paying the rent.

• verb

  Try to balance the tray of glasses with both hands.

• noun

  Good balance helps older walkers avoid a nasty fall.

• noun

  The card statement showed an outstanding balance of two hundred pounds.

• verb

  The accountant worked late to balance the company books.

Where does balance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin bilanx, an adjective describing something 'having two pans', formed from bi 'two' and lanx 'a flat plate or scale pan'. A pair of these pans hanging from a beam made up the classical weighing balance, so the name fixed on the instrument itself. Late Latin turned the adjective into the noun bilancia, which passed into Old French as balance and from there into English in the 1200s. The literal sense of a two-pan weighing device soon broadened into the figurative ideas of equilibrium, fairness, and the amount left over when one side is weighed against another, which is how accountants came to speak of a balance. The spelling keeps the soft -ance ending rather than -ence, which is the small trap that catches writers who pause over the unstressed second syllable.

How the word is built

• bi- (two)
• lanc (from lanx: scale pan, dish)
• -e