English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English allouance, from Old French alouance.

Morphologically allow +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /əˈlaʊəns/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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allowance (countable and uncountable, plural allowances)

  1. Permission; granting, conceding, or admitting
  2. Acknowledgment.
  3. 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.
  4. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances
    to make allowance for his naivety
  5. (commerce) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, differing by country.
    Tare and tret are examples of allowance.
  6. (horse racing) A permitted reduction in the weight that a racehorse must carry.
    Antonym: penalty
    On the Flat, an apprentice jockey starts with an allowance of 7 lb.
  7. A child's allowance; pocket money.
    She gives her daughters each an allowance of thirty dollars a month.
  8. (minting) A permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coins, owing to the difficulty in securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.
  9. (obsolete) Approval; approbation.
    • 1807, George Crabbe, The Parish Register:
      [] gave allowance where he needed none
  10. (obsolete) License; indulgence.
    • 1695, John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity:
      this Allowance for their Transgressions
  11. (engineering) A planned deviation between an exact dimension and a nominal or theoretical dimension.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Cebuano: alawans
  • Malay: élaun

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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allowance (third-person singular simple present allowances, present participle allowancing, simple past and past participle allowanced)

  1. (transitive) To put upon a fixed allowance (especially of provisions and drink).
    The captain was obliged to allowance his crew.
  2. (transitive) To supply in a fixed and limited quantity.
    Our provisions were allowanced.

References

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