Dispensing

How to spell dispensing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dispensing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dispensing mean?

1. verbDistributing or handing out something in measured amounts.
2. verbGetting rid of or managing without something, usually followed by 'with'.

Dispensing in a sentence

• The pharmacist spent the afternoon dispensing the prescribed tablets.

• The company is dispensing with paper invoices to cut down on waste.

• The machine in the lobby was dispensing hot coffee all morning.

• By dispensing with the middleman, the shop kept its prices low.

Where does dispensing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'dispense', which comes from the Latin dispensare, meaning 'to weigh out' or 'to pay out by weight'. That verb was a frequentative form of dispendere, built from dis-, meaning 'apart' or 'out', and pendere, meaning 'to weigh' or 'to pay'. In the ancient world money and goods were literally weighed on scales, so the original idea was of measuring something out carefully into portions. English took the word in through Old French during the 1300s, and it kept the sense of handing out measured amounts, which survives in the modern pharmacist 'dispensing' medicine. The same pendere root, the act of weighing, also gives us 'pension', 'expense', and 'pending', and it explains the spelling with 's' rather than 'c' in the middle.

How the word is built

• dis- (out, apart)
• pens (weigh, pay out)
• -ing (present participle suffix)