expense
ex·pense/ɪkˈspɛns/noun, verb
expense is spelled E-X-P-E-N-S-E, 2 syllables: ex·pense. The wrong spelling people search most is expence: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 35 of all searches for the word. Expense is a noun meaning “A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds”. The plural of expense is expenses.
How many letters and syllables are in expense?
| Letters | 7: E-X-P-E-N-S-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: ex·pense |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,838th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, expence, about 140 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell expense?
Expense is spelled E-X-P-E-N-S-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 35 of the searches for expense in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is expense?
Expense appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th 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 expense?
- /ɪkˈspɛns/
Expense has 2 syllables, split ex·pense in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-expense.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of expense
- expenses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- expensing participle, present
- expensed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does expense mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.
She went to great expense to ensure her children would get the best education.
- 2
The elimination or consumption of something, sometimes with the notion of loss or damage to the thing eliminated.
Jones reached the final at the expense of Smith, who couldn't beat him.
- 3
obsoleteLoss.
verb
- 1
To charge a cost against an expense account; to bill something to the company for which one works.
It should be acceptable to expense a business lunch with a client.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Expense in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dépense |
| German | Ausgabe, Aufwand , Verlust |
| Portuguese | despesa |
| Spanish | gasto, dispendio, expendio, expensas |
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 expense come from?
From Middle English expense, from Anglo-Norman expense and Old French espense, from Late Latin expēnsa, from Latin expendō. See expend. Doublet of speso.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).