SPEND Synonyms: 98 Similar and Opposite Words

spend

verb

ˈspend

Definition of spend

as in to pay

to hand over or use up in payment I always end up spending too much money at the mall

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to consume

to make complete use of the town has already spent its budget for snow removal, and it's only January

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to waste

to use up carelessly spent all his energy on impractical schemes

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of spend After spending training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs, Demercado was waived at the end of camp and claimed by Dallas. — Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Oct. 2026 Two particularly salient lines of attack were that Carter didn’t use the CTA and spent more time on international tours than in CTA stations while service suffered. — Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026 Laura Phipps, who spent seventeen years at the Whitney Museum of American Art and worked on the museum’s Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith retrospective, will serve as director. — News Desk, Artforum, 8 Oct. 2026 Researchers found that eating or drinking less than an hour before bed was linked to longer sleep, but it was also associated with more time spent awake during the night. — Sarah Jividen, Verywell Health, 8 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for spend

Recent Examples of Synonyms for spend

Verb

In that government post paying almost $70,000 a year, Jamal acted as a liaison with the Somali community.

— Mia Cathell, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026
Last month, Democracy Docket surpassed 500,000 free email subscribers, the company first told Semafor, including 70,000 subscribers paying $10 a month or $120 per year.

— Max Tani, semafor.com, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of pay

Verb

That means an e-reader can display a page for hours while consuming essentially no display power between updates.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 4 Oct. 2026
According to a new report on eating patterns in America by market research company Circana, nearly half of US adults are actively trying to consume more protein, from bars to whey powder to chicken breasts night after night.

— Emily Laurence Sardinha, Bon Appetit Magazine, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of consume

Verb

Shinn gave examples that will sound familiar to anyone who has wasted part of an afternoon on hold.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 3 Oct. 2026
Spending heavily here is the most common way companies waste money on AI because there’s nothing underneath to make the spend productive.

— Shweta Gummidipudi, Forbes.com, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of waste

Verb

Its winner, whether filmmaker or rights holder, will give the platform an exclusive license to show the film for a limited period.

— Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 3 Oct. 2026
Intense sound effects—such as the exceptionally long reverberation and echoes inside the Blue Demon tomb—gave a dramatic soundtrack to this intense, immersive experience.

— Jacqueline Ortoleva, Scientific American, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of give

Verb

Shawn and his father found the man on the easternmost coast of their island shortly after dusk, when the sky was drained of almost all its orange light and the waves had grown dark, topped with an eerie froth.

— Rachel Heng, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2026
The road Game 3 win reigns supreme in Liberty lore after Sabrina Ionescu drained a 28-foot game-winning dagger.

— Fiifi Frimpong, New York Daily News, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of drain

Verb

What’s made this franchise so beloved has been its willingness to go on that journey with its young characters, maturing and deepening and changing without losing that initial childlike sense of hope and joy.

— Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 9 Oct. 2026
This means, according to the team, that only about 2% of the electrical charge was lost to competing reactions.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of lose

Verb

Unsurprisingly, Chinese researchers have predicted that the main urban pension fund covering some 500 million urban workers, retirees, and cadres will be exhausted by the mid-2030s.

— Carl Minzner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2026
In June, the NCAA ruled the class of 2022 had exhausted their eligibility.

— PJ Green October 2, Kansas City Star, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of exhaust

Verb

But as stock prices climb and bond yields increase, that relative advantage is diminishing, leaving less room for equities to absorb higher rates.

— Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 8 Oct. 2026
Not only have household budgets spent the last several years absorbing higher prices, but today's high rates mean that credit card balances and other monthly obligations are likely claiming a larger share of each paycheck, too.

— Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of absorb

Browse Nearby Words

spences

spend

spender

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Spend.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spend. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of spend

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

inscrutable

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Popular in Wordplay

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

Popular

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes