instalment
/ɪnˈstɔːlm(ə)nt
/(US installment)
noun
1A sum of money due as one of several equal payments for something, spread over an agreed period of time: the first instalment of a grant for housing the purchase price is paid in instalments...
- In some industrial and construction loans the amount lent may be drawn down by the borrower in instalments within an agreed period.
- Formerly, owners who sold their companies through asset sales and received the payment in installments had to pay taxes on an installment basis also.
- The policies typically vest in 10 to 20 years, after which investors can withdraw the money in installments or leave it where it is.
Synonyms
part payment, partial payment;
instalment plan, instalment-payment plan, deferred payment;
British hire purchase, HP;
North American instalment buying
British informal the never-never
2Any of several parts of something which are published, broadcast, or made public in sequence at intervals: filming the final instalment in his Vietnam trilogy...
- Written anonymously, it was published in instalments on the internet and soon became an underground sensation in mainland China's gay community.
- The series A Sense of Place will be launched during this special programme and the first instalment will be broadcast from 10.15 to 10.45 am.
- We gaze obediently like cattle at the television screen perched above, broadcasting the latest installment of a Spanish soap opera.
Synonyms
part, portion, section, segment, division, bit;
chapter, episode, volume, issue
3 [mass noun] The process of installing something; installation: instalment will begin early next year...
- Its instalment has increased the systems capacity to 8,000 of a population.
Origin
Mid 18th century (denoting the arrangement of payment by instalments): alteration of obsolete estalment (probably by association with installation), from Anglo-Norman French estalement, from Old French estaler 'to fix'.