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expendable.

Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/

  1. Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.

    Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.

  2. Designed for a single use; not reusable.

    The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.

  3. Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.

    The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.

  4. Regarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.

    In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English expend Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English expendable From expend + -able.

noun/ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/

  1. An expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.

    Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English expend Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English expendable From expend + -able.

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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.