expendable

C2+ Topic:Space, Position & Direction

US /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/ UK /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
able to be sacrificed or used up as not essential

In the general's cold calculus the scouts were expendable.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · able to be sacrificed or... dispensable disposablereplaceablenonessential inessential superfluous

Opposites

indispensable essentialirreplaceablevital

Word family

Derived forms expendability

Related forms expend expenditure expense

Etymology

From expend + -able, from Latin expendere ('to weigh out, pay out'), from ex- ('out') + pendere ('to weigh, pay').

expendere Latin pendere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Space, Position & Direction Word Formation & Derivatives

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# expendable

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/

## Meanings
1. able to be sacrificed or used up as not essential

## Examples
- In the general's cold calculus the scouts were expendable.

## Synonyms
- dispensable
- disposable
- replaceable
- nonessential
- inessential
- superfluous

## Antonyms
- indispensable
- essential
- irreplaceable
- vital

## Derived Forms
- expendability

## Related Forms
- expend
- expenditure
- expense

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: expendere
- Root: pendere

## Etymology
From expend + -able, from Latin expendere ('to weigh out, pay out'), from ex- ('out') + pendere ('to weigh, pay').

## AI Etymology
Expendable comes from expend + -able, from Latin expendere ('to weigh out, pay out'), from ex- ('out') + pendere ('to weigh, pay'). Morphologically, the account is both compositional and suffixal: ex- and -able marks the visible structure by which the older base becomes the modern form. In present use, it is used as a adjective and noun meaning "able to be sacrificed or used up as not essential", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. The wider English family includes derivatives such as expendability and related forms such as expend, expenditure, and expense, showing how the same historical material continues to organize neighboring vocabulary. The named historical forms include Latin expendere and Latin pendere, keeping the history tied to concrete forms rather than a loose resemblance.

## Topics
- Space, Position & Direction
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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expendable

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