allowance.
Permission; granting, conceding, or admitting.
Meaning & usage
Permission; granting, conceding, or admitting.
Acknowledgment.
An amount, portion, or share that is allotted or granted; a sum granted as a reimbursement, a bounty, or as appropriate for any purpose.
her meagre allowance of food or drink
Being a volunteer is unpaid, but we get accommodation and a living allowance of 100 euros a week.
An amount, portion, or share that is allotted or granted; a sum granted as a reimbursement, a bounty, or as appropriate for any purpose. Such a sum or portion granted to a family member or familiar, especially one's own child; pocket money for such a person.
She gives her daughters each an allowance of thirty dollars a month.
Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances.
to make allowance for his naivety
A deduction from the gross weight of goods, such as to discount their container's weight or per a custom differing by country.
Minus the allowance, the total came to thirteen tons.
A permitted reduction in the weight that a racehorse must carry.
On the Flat, an apprentice jockey starts with an allowance of 7 lb.
A permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coins, owing to the difficulty in securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.
Approval; approbation.
License; indulgence.
A sum of money allotted to a wife for her separate maintenance, especially alimony granted upon a legal separation or divorce.
A planned deviation between an exact dimension and a nominal or theoretical dimension.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin laus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin laudō Latin allaudō Old French aloer ▲ Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *stel-der. Proto-Italic *stlokos? Old Latin stlocus Latin locus ▲ Latin -ō Latin locō Latin allocō Old French aloer Old French alouer Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ance Old French alouancebor. Middle English allouance English allowance From Middle English allouance, from Old French alouance. Morphologically allow + -ance.
To put upon a fixed allowance (especially of provisions and drink).
The captain was obliged to allowance his crew.
To supply in a fixed and limited quantity.
Our provisions were allowanced.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin laus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin laudō Latin allaudō Old French aloer ▲ Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *stel-der. Proto-Italic *stlokos? Old Latin stlocus Latin locus ▲ Latin -ō Latin locō Latin allocō Old French aloer Old French alouer Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ance Old French alouancebor. Middle English allouance English allowance From Middle English allouance, from Old French alouance. Morphologically allow + -ance.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.