Skip to main content
PlainSpell

dispense

dis·pense/dɪˈspɛns/verb

dispense is spelled D-I-S-P-E-N-S-E: 8 letters and 2 syllables (dis·pense). It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, dispense means “To issue, distribute, or give out” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dispense?

Letters8: D-I-S-P-E-N-S-E
Syllables2: dis·pense
In writing1.3 times per million words; the 25,070th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dispense?

Dispense appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dispense?

  • US /dɪˈspɛns/
  • Australia /dɪˈspens/

Dispense has 2 syllables, split dis·pense in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-dispense.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with dispense?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dispense from its last stressed vowel (/ɛns/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dispense

  • dispenses present, singular, he/she/it
  • dispensing participle, present
  • dispensed participle, past
  • dispence

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dispense mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To issue, distribute, or give out.

  2. 2

    To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.

    to dispense justice

  3. 3

    To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.

    The pharmacist dispensed my tablets.

  4. 4

    To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo compensate; to make up; to make amends.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteCost, expenditure.

  2. 2

    obsoleteThe act of dispensing, dispensation.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dispense in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchémettre, distribuer, partager, dispenser (to issue, distribute, or give out), doser, préparer (to supply or make up a medicine or prescription)
Germanausgeben, austeilen, verteilen (to issue, distribute, or give out), dosieren, ausstellen (to supply or make up a medicine or prescription), entschuldigen (''(obsolete in English)'' to give a…)
Spanishdispensar (to supply or make up a medicine or prescription), administrar, impartir (to apply, as laws to particular cases; to…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dispense come from?

From Middle English, from Old French dispenser, from Latin dispēnsāre (“to weigh out, pay out, distribute, regulate, manage, control, dispense”), frequentative of dispendere (“to weigh out”), from dis- (“apart”) + pendere (“to weigh”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dispense