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Expend vs. Spend: is my understanding of the semantic difference between "Expend" and "Spend" correct?

English Language & Usage Asked by Giorgi Tsiklauri on March 18, 2021

I, sort of, tried to handpick the best resources and dictionaries for the semantic comparison/distinction of these two words. From those, I will share the definitions by the dictionaries I mainly tend to use.

Cambridge Dictionary

defines Expend, as:

Verb [T]: to use or spend time, effort, or money.

defines Spend, as:

Verb [I or T]: to give money as a payment for something:

Collins Dictionary

defines Expend as:

Verb: To expend something, especially energy, time, or money, means to use it or spend it.

defines Spend as:

Verb: When you spend money, you pay money for things that you want.

Is my understand correct, that:

Expend serves a bit more generic purpose in the cases, where we want to apply semantics of the Consuming some finite resource, be it a money, energy, fuel, or etc.

whilst

Spend defines exclusively the meaning of Spending money for something?

One Answer

In my opinion, your understanding of the two verbs is correct. Extend is, as you point out, more generic than spend.

However, someone can spend more than just money.

I enjoy spending time with my friend Lisa. [The time period could be minutes, hours, or even days.]

I spend most of my afternoons reading. [Here, "most of my afternoons" comprises both the majority of the afternoons in a week's time (i.e., at least four out of seven) and perhaps the majority of hours in each of those afternoons (e.g., three or four hours within the time frame of noon to 5 PM).

Finally, if a person is totally exhausted, with absolutely no more energy to continue doing what he or she has been doing, you could describe that person as spent.

After having run six miles, Fred was completely spent.

Answered by rhetorician on March 18, 2021

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