Other forms: allowances
An allowance is money handed over regularly for someone to spend as they like. The coins a child gets on Saturday, the sum a student gets from home at the start of each month.
British English says pocket money for the child version and saves allowance for the official kinds. A travel allowance, a clothing allowance, a personal tax allowance, the baggage allowance on a flight — each one is an amount you are permitted before charges or limits begin. So the word covers both the money given and the ceiling you may go up to. Make allowances for someone is a set phrase: judge them gently because of their situation. In sewing and building, the allowance is the extra you leave for the join — the seam allowance down the side of a dress.
1nounallowanceMoney given regularly to someone for them to spend.
“Her whole allowance went on sweets by Wednesday.”
synonyms: pocket money, stipend
2nounamountAn amount of something you are permitted before charges or limits apply.
“The baggage allowance is twenty-three kilos a bag.”
3nounextraExtra material left when cutting or building, so the parts can be joined.
“Leave a centimetre of seam allowance down each side.”
allowance is a sum of money or a permitted amount.
Also accepted in games: pocket money
Allowance is allow with -ance on the end, the ending that turns an action into the thing itself. It reached English through Old French alouance and Middle English allouance. The meaning has stayed sitting inside the word ever since: an allowance is what you are allowed.
Old French
alouance
Middle English
allouance
English, today
allowance
From Middle English allouance, from Old French alouance. From Middle English allouance, from Old French alouance. Morphologically allow + ance.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA