Disburse vs. Disperse: What's the Difference?
While disburse and disperse may sound similar, they carry distinct meanings. Disburse typically involves the payment or distribution of money from a fund or account and is often used in financial contexts. In contrast, disperse refers to the spreading out of something, often in a scattered manner, such as particles or a crowd of people.
How do you use the word disburse in a sentence?
Use disburse when you are referring to the official paying out or distribution of funds from an account or organization. The term is generally associated with a formal process involving monetary transactions, such as businesses disbursing dividends to shareholders or a government agency disbursing grants.
Examples of disburse in a sentence
- The company plans to disburse year-end bonuses to all employees next month.
- The charity organization disbursed the collected funds to the disaster-stricken community.
- After the settlement was reached, the lawyer disbursed the compensation to the claimant.
How do you use the word disperse in a sentence?
Use disperse when you mean to describe the action of distributing or scattering things or people over a wide area. It can reflect both physical scattering, like particles in the air, and metaphorical dispersal, such as spreading information among a population.
Examples of disperse in a sentence
- Police officers arrived to disperse the crowd gathering in the square.
- The wind helped to disperse the seeds of the dandelion across the field.
- The rumor quickly dispersed throughout the school, causing quite a stir.
Disburse and disperse definition, parts of speech, and pronunciation
Disburse definition:
To disburse means to pay out or distribute money from a large fund, such as from a government or company treasury or from a charity fund.
Disburse parts of speech:
Disburse pronunciation:
Disburse is pronounced as /dɪsˈbɜrs/.
Disperse definition:
To disperse means to spread widely into different directions or to cause to vanish or disappear, especially by scattering.
Disperse parts of speech:
Disperse pronunciation:
Disperse is pronounced as /dɪˈspɜrs/.
To disburse means to pay out or distribute money from a large fund, such as from a government or company treasury or from a charity fund.
Disburse parts of speech:
- Verb: The accountant was tasked to disburse the allocated budget equally among the departments.
Disburse pronunciation:
Disburse is pronounced as /dɪsˈbɜrs/.
Disperse definition:
To disperse means to spread widely into different directions or to cause to vanish or disappear, especially by scattering.
Disperse parts of speech:
- Verb: The protestors began to disperse once the rally ended.
Disperse pronunciation:
Disperse is pronounced as /dɪˈspɜrs/.
Disburse vs. disperse in a nutshell
To recap the key differences: disburse is primarily about the distribution of money from a collective source to individuals or groups, often as part of a structured process. 'Disperse,' on the other hand, describes the action of scattering items or people widely or the process of them fading from sight or existence. Remembering the financial context for disburse and the broad distribution for disperse will help distinguish between these two terms.
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