amortize
verb
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When you amortize a loan, you "kill it off" gradually by paying it down in installments. This is reflected in the word's etymology. Amortize derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from Vulgar Latin admortire, meaning "to kill." The Latin noun mors ("death") is a root of admortire; it is related to our word murder, and it also gave us a word naming a kind of loan that is usually amortized: mortgage. Amortize carries a different meaning in the field of corporate finance, where it means to depreciate the cost or value of an asset (as, for example, to reduce interest revenue on that asset for tax purposes).
Examples of amortize in a Sentence
Jake Lingeman, Newsweek, 25 Nov. 2024
These brands have the advantage of scale and the ability to amortize their investments into digital resources over a large customer base.
—George Davis, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2024
Teams pay out bonuses coupled with lower base salaries to start the deals, and the bonuses are amortized through the life of the contract for cap purposes.
—Tim Kawakami, The Athletic, 23 Aug. 2024
The group says the price tag can be paid through a municipal revenue bond that would be amortized over 30 years.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Feb. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Amortize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amortize. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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amortize
transitive verb
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