ALLOWANCE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does allowance mean? 

• ALLOWANCE (noun)
  The noun ALLOWANCE has 6 senses:

1. an amount allowed or granted (as during a given period)

2. a sum granted as reimbursement for expenses

3. an amount added or deducted on the basis of qualifying circumstances

4. a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits

5. a reserve fund created by a charge against profits in order to provide for changes in the value of a company's assets

6. the act of allowing

  Familiarity information: ALLOWANCE used as a noun is common.

• ALLOWANCE (verb)
  The verb ALLOWANCE has 1 sense:

1. put on a fixed allowance, as of food

  Familiarity information: ALLOWANCE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALLOWANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An amount allowed or granted (as during a given period)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Context example:

a child's allowance should not be too generous

Hypernyms ("allowance" is a kind of...):

part; percentage; portion; share (assets belonging to or due to or contributed by an individual person or group)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allowance"):

privy purse (allowance for a monarch's personal expenses)

Derivation:

allow (give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause)

allowance (put on a fixed allowance, as of food)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sum granted as reimbursement for expenses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("allowance" is a kind of...):

reimbursement (compensation paid (to someone) for damages or losses or money already spent etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allowance"):

per diem (a daily allowance for living expenses (especially while traveling in connection with your job))

travel allowance; travel reimbursement (a sum allowed for travel)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An amount added or deducted on the basis of qualifying circumstances

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

adjustment; allowance

Context example:

an allowance for profit

Hypernyms ("allowance" is a kind of...):

recompense (payment or reward (as for service rendered))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allowance"):

cost-of-living allowance (an allowance for changes in the consumer price index)

depreciation allowance (an allowance for loss due to depreciation)

deduction; discount (an amount or percentage deducted)

seasonal adjustment (a statistical adjustment made to accommodate predictable fluctuations as a function of the season of the year)

tare (an adjustment made for the weight of the packaging in order to determine the net weight of the goods)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

allowance; leeway; margin; tolerance

Hypernyms ("allowance" is a kind of...):

disagreement; discrepancy; divergence; variance (a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions)

Derivation:

allow (allow the presence of or allow (an activity) without opposing or prohibiting)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A reserve fund created by a charge against profits in order to provide for changes in the value of a company's assets

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

allowance; allowance account; valuation account; valuation reserve

Hypernyms ("allowance" is a kind of...):

reserve account; reserve fund (funds taken out of earnings to provide for anticipated future payments)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The act of allowing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

He objected to the allowance of smoking in the dining room

Hypernyms ("allowance" is a kind of...):

license; permission; permit (the act of giving a formal (usually written) authorization)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allowance"):

tolerance (the act of tolerating something)

Derivation:

allow (allow the presence of or allow (an activity) without opposing or prohibiting)

• ALLOWANCE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put on a fixed allowance, as of food

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "allowance" is one way to...):

allow; grant (let have)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody something

Derivation:

allowance (an amount allowed or granted (as during a given period))

 Context examples 

I make no allowance for innumerable feelings and circumstances that may have all tended to good.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Lashing the two topmasts together, and making allowance for their unequal length, at the point of intersection I attached the double block of the main throat-halyards.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so unprecedented a position.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In this case the matter was simplified by Brunton’s intelligence being quite first-rate, so that it was unnecessary to make any allowance for the personal equation, as the astronomers have dubbed it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You do not make allowance enough for difference of situation and temper.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

If you are forewarned you will be the more ready to make allowances.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Anne replied, and spoke in defence of the performance so well, and yet in allowance for his feelings so pleasantly, that his countenance improved, and he replied again with almost a smile.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It was too far to return to dinner, and an allowance of cold meat and bread, in the same penurious proportion observed in our ordinary meals, was served round between the services.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Martin was not yet rich enough to afford meat, and he was on slim allowance when the White Mouse check arrived.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“We must make some little allowance,” said my uncle, with a sudden return to his jaunty manner.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)