spend
/spɛnd/verb, noun
spend is spelled S-P-E-N-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 93 times per million words in written English, the 1,144th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, spend means “To pay out (money)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in spend?
| Letters | 5: S-P-E-N-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 93 times per million words; the 1,144th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 spend?
Spend appears 93 times per million words in written English, the 1,144th 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 spend?
- US /spɛnd/
- US /spɪnd/
- Australia /spend/
Spend has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-spend.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with spend?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as spend from its last stressed vowel (/ɛnd/):
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 spend
- spends present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- spending participle, present
- spent participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spend mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To pay out (money).
I've already spent hundreds of dollars buying dog chow.
- 2
To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.
- 3
datedTo squander.
to spend an estate in gambling
- 4
To exhaust, to wear out.
The violence of the waves was spent.
- 5
To consume, to use up (time).
My sister usually spends her free time in nightclubs.
- 6
datedTo have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.
The fish spends his semen on eggs which he finds floating and whose mother he has never seen.
- 7
To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
Energy spends in the using of it.
- 8
To be diffused; to spread.
noun
- 1
Amount of money spent (during a period); expenditure.
I’m sorry, boss, but the advertising spend exceeded the budget again this month.
- 2
Expenditures; money or pocket money.
- 3
Discharged semen.
- 4
Vaginal discharge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spend in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dépenser , passer |
| German | ausgeben, spendieren , verbringen , verbrauchen, erschöpfen, aufzehren |
| Portuguese | gastar , passar , gasto , gastos , jato |
| Spanish | gastar, despender, expender, erogar , pasar, pernoctar |
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 spend come from?
From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds āspendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spendōn (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doublet of expend.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).