Contribution

How to spell contribution

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce contribution

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contribution mean?

1. nounSomething given or supplied to help a cause, project, or shared total.

Contribution in a sentence

• Her monthly contribution to the pension fund increases with each pay rise.

• The charity thanked every donor for a generous contribution.

Where does contribution come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb contribuere, meaning 'to bring together' or 'to add to a common store', formed from con- 'together' and tribuere 'to grant, assign, or allot'. That root tribuere itself comes from tribus, the word for a 'tribe' or division of the Roman people, because resources were originally distributed according to these groupings. The related noun contributio described a joint payment or shared levy. English took the word in the late 1300s through Old French contribution, first in the sense of a tax or sum paid into a common fund, before it broadened to mean any input or share given to a cause. The same tribuere root surfaces in 'tribute', 'attribute', and 'distribute', which is a useful reminder that the trap in the spelling is the single 'b' followed by the 'ution' ending.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• trib (assign, allot, from tribus 'tribe')
• -ution (noun of action)