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
Joe Coscarelli, New York Times, 6 June 2024
Power San Diego called the estimates inflated and says the creation of a municipal electric utility could be funded by passing a bond to establish a standalone enterprise fund, with costs amortized over 30 years.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 June 2024
One proposal is to amortize how much insurers pay over time, like a home mortgage.
—Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News, 12 May 2024
Company management is happy to amortize the cost of electronic check-out service and not have to pay to recruit, hire, train, pay and offer incentives and benefits to real people.
—Dean Minnich, Baltimore Sun, 4 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for amortize 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'amortize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Amortize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amortize. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
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amortize
transitive verb
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