Spend

How to spell spend

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spend

What does spend mean?

1. verbTo pay out money, or to use up time, effort, or resources.
2. nounThe total amount of money spent on a particular activity, especially in business or advertising.

Spend in a sentence

• verb

  They spend far too much on takeaway coffee each month.

• noun

  The agency tracked the client's quarterly advertising spend.

• verb

  Retired couples often spend winter in a warmer country.

• noun

  The report compared marketing spend across all regions.

Where does spend come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word descends from Old English spendan, meaning 'to pay out' or 'to use up', which was itself borrowed early from the Latin expendere, literally 'to weigh out' (from ex- 'out' and pendere 'to weigh'). In the ancient world money was checked by weight, so paying really did involve weighing out coin, and that physical image survives in the related words 'expend', 'expense', and 'pension'. The form entered English in the Germanic period and settled into its simple modern shape long before the Norman Conquest. Its past tense 'spent' follows the same pattern as 'send' and 'bend', which is why the everyday spelling is short and regular. Over the centuries the sense broadened from handing over money to using up any resource, including time and energy.

How the word is built

• spend (from Old English spendan: to pay out, use up)