disbursement

Disbursement is the act of paying out money, or the payment itself.

Because the meaning of disbursement focuses on money and payment, the word is almost exclusively used in financial and business spheres—especially when the exchange of money is formal.

Example: The disbursement of paychecks was delayed due to a clerical error, causing much grumbling among the staff.

Disbursement first appears in English around 1600. Its root word disburse is slightly older, first recorded around the 1530s, and comes from combining des (meaning “apart”) and bourse (meaning “purse”—a bag used to carry money).

The modern financial use of disbursement often means something quite specific—payment from a particular fund or account, often in the context of a business, charity, scholarship, or other formalized type of payment. If the thing being given out or provided is not financial or money-related (like food, for example), you probably want to use distribution, not disbursement.

What are some other forms of disbursement?

• disburse (verb)

What are some synonyms for disbursement?

• payment
• expenditure 
• outlay

What are some words that share a root or word element with disbursement?

• reimburse 
• purse
• bursar
• bursary

What are some words that often get used in discussing disbursement?

• funds
• revenue 
• expense

What are some words disbursement may be commonly confused with?

• distribution
• reimbursement
• dispersion

Disbursement has a pretty specific context: paying money to something or someone, usually an institution making a payment to an individual. Even within that context, it tends to be used in formal situations, like when you’re talking about politics, economics, student financial aid, and other such areas. You probably wouldn’t use it to talk about repaying money your friend lent you to buy coffee (for instance), unless you were being humorous.

EOBI's vision for the future is “Best Technology Driven Service-Oriented Institution” in the country to enable Pension disbursement on timely, prompt and Service basis with the utmost convenience for the contributors.

— Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) (@EOBIPakistan) November 19, 2019

OG @KHALIGRAPH had given up on music management bodies due to the royalties disbursement issues, I'm reliably informed that he was soberly briefed and understood the matter. He deleted IG and Twitter posts which had advised his fans to play his music freely.#MzikiSioSare

— Kwale Gunner 🇰🇪 (@Sam_Lulli) November 19, 2019

#ADNScholarshipDrive completed another round of disbursement of Wave 6 grants.

As of today, 33% of the 21 grants have been fully disbursed; 19% have been partially paid while 48% are yet to be disbursed, pending the payment schedules of our Scholars.#ALDUBxADNDeeplyGrateful

— #ADNScholarshipDrive (@ADNTeam_Ageless) November 11, 2019

 

 

Which of the following sentences uses disbursement correctly?

A. Scientists are studying the disbursement of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
B. Your disbursement of a new cat into my home is not appreciated.
C. I’ve signed off on the disbursement of funds to your charity.