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alimony

UK/ˈæl.ɪ.mə.ni/US/ˈæl.ə.moʊ.ni/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,184 of 15,258leans spoken

Alimony is money one spouse must pay the other after a divorce. Pay alimony, an alimony order, claim alimony.

It is the American word; British law says maintenance or spousal support, and the amounts and rules differ enormously between countries. It is separate from child support, which is money for the children rather than the former partner. The Latin means nourishment.

Definitions of alimony

  1. 1nounalimonyMoney one spouse must pay the other after a divorce.C1

    “After the divorce, he had to pay his ex-wife alimony every month.”

alimony is a payment.

Where it comes from

Latin alimonia means nourishment or sustenance, from alere, to nourish. Aliment and alimentary are relatives.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂el- (grow)

  2. Latin

    alimōnia — food, support, nourishment, sustenance

  3. English, today

    alimony

Built from

  • alō · Latin — to nourish
  • -mōnia · Latin — action, state, condition

Known since the 17th century, from Latin alimōnia (“food, support, nourishment, sustenance”) (English aliment, as in alimentary), itself from alō (“to nourish”) + -mōnia (“action, state, condition”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

alimony in the wild

  • The judgment in the case held that Alabama statutes that imposed alimony obligations on husbands but not on wives violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

    Orr v. Orr

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.