expenditure
noun /ɪkˈspendɪtʃə(r)/
  /ɪkˈspendɪtʃər/
[uncountable, countable]- the act of spending or using money; an amount of money spent
- a reduction in public/government/military expenditure
 - plans to increase expenditure on health
 - The budget provided for a total expenditure of £27 billion.
 - Savings have been disposed of in order to meet the growing gap between income and expenditure.
 
Synonyms costscosts- spending
 - expenditure
 - expenses
 - overheads
 - outlay
 
- costs the total amount of money that needs to be spent by a business:
- labour/production costs
 - rising costs
 
 - spending the amount of money that is spent, especially by a government or an organization:
- public spending
 - More spending on health was promised.
 
 - expenditure (rather formal) an amount of money spent by a government, an organization or a person:
- expenditure on education
 
 - expenses money that has to be spent by a person or an organization; money that you spend while you are working that your employer will pay back to you later:
- legal expenses
 - travel expenses
 
 - overhead(s) the regular costs of running a business or an organization, such as rent, electricity and wages:
- High overheads mean small profit margins.
 
 - outlay the money that you have to spend in order to start a new business or project, or in order to save yourself money or time later:
- The best equipment is costly but is well worth the outlay.
 
 
- spending/expenditure/outlay on something
 - high/low costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/overheads
 - total costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/overheads/outlay
 - capital costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/outlay
 - household costs/spending/expenditure/expenses
 - government/public/education/health costs/spending/expenditure
 - to increase/reduce costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/overheads/the outlay
 
Extra ExamplesTopics Businessc1- Capital expenditure can be financed by borrowing; operating expenditure should not.
 - Expenditure was set at £16 million.
 - Make sure you have enough in the current account to meet expenditure.
 - Malls require huge expenditures on air conditioning.
 - The budget provided for expenditure of $2 billion.
 - The group is calling for higher expenditure on education.
 - They incurred enormous expenditures for publicity during the launch years.
 - You may wish to take out a loan for a major item of expenditure.
 - plans to cut health expenditure
 - the family's average expenditure on food
 - Trouble arises when expenditure exceeds income.
 
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- considerable
 - great
 - heavy
 - …
 
- item
 - amount
 - level
 - …
 
- make
 - increase
 - control
 - …
 
- go up
 - grow
 - increase
 - …
 
- cut
 - limit
 - level
 - …
 
- expenditure for
 - expenditure of
 - expenditure on
 - …
 
- a cut in expenditure
 - a reduction in expenditure
 - an increase in expenditure
 - …
 
 - the use of energy, time, materials, etc.
- the expenditure of emotion
 - This study represents a major expenditure of time and effort.
 
 compare income 
Word Originmid 18th cent.: from expend, suggested by obsolete expenditor ‘officer in charge of expenditure’, from medieval Latin, from expenditus, irregular past participle of Latin expendere, from ex- ‘out’ + pendere ‘weigh, pay’.