Pay out or payout?
pay out is a verb meaning “To distribute money; to disburse”; payout is a noun meaning “An amount of money paid out”. Use pay out as a verb and payout as a noun. pay out is written as two words and payout as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between pay out and payout?
| pay out | payout | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun |
| Meaning | To distribute money; to disburse To slacken a rope by lengthening it; to allow a rope to run out | An amount of money paid out The value of dividends paid to shareholders |
| Example | none recorded | The maximum payout from this fruit machine is £20 |
| Forms | none | payouts |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 2.3 times per million words |
Sources: pay out and payout in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pay out and payout
pay out
- 1
To distribute money; to disburse
- 2
Alternative form of payout
- 3
To slacken a rope by lengthening it; to allow a rope to run out
- 4
To slacken by lengthening
- 5
To repay, take revenge
- 6
To give someone their just desserts
- 7
AustraliainformalTo make fun of or insult, often in a teasing manner
payout
- 1
An amount of money paid out
The maximum payout from this fruit machine is £20
- 2
The value of dividends paid to shareholders
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pay out or payout?
pay out is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; payout 2.3 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search pay out vs payout?
“pay out vs payout” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“payout vs pay out”, “pay out or payout”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.