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say it: uh-LOW-uhns
allowance is a noun and verb meaning "an amount allowed or granted (as during a given period)". It carries 7 recorded senses.
an amount allowed or granted (as during a given period)
“travel allowance”
“my weekly allowance of two eggs”
“a child's allowance should not be too generous”
a sum granted as reimbursement for expenses
an amount added or deducted on the basis of qualifying circumstances
“an allowance for profit”
a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits
a reserve fund created by a charge against profits in order to provide for changes in the value of a company's assets
put on a fixed allowance, as of food
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for allowance come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.