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Benefit vs Allowance - What's the difference?

benefit | allowance |

In obsolete terms the difference between benefit and allowance

is that benefit is beneficence; liberality while allowance is license; indulgence.

As nouns the difference between benefit and allowance

is that benefit is an advantage, help, sake or aid from something while allowance is the act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance.

As verbs the difference between benefit and allowance

is that benefit is to be or to provide a benefit to while allowance is to put upon a fixed allowance (especially of provisions and drink); to supply in a fixed and limited quantity.

benefit

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An advantage, help, sake or aid from something.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit , Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.}}
  • A payment made in accordance with an insurance policy or a public assistance scheme.
  • A performance, etc, given to raise funds for some cause.
  • (obsolete) beneficence; liberality
  • Derived terms

    * beneficial * benefiter

    Synonyms

    * (advantage, help ): foredeal, advantage, aid, assistance, boon, help * (payment ): subsidy

    Antonyms

    * (advantage, help ): disadvantage, encumbrance, hindrance, nuisance, obstacle, detriment

    See also

    * lagniappe

    Verb

  • To be or to provide a benefit to.
  • * Bible, Jer. xviii. 10
  • I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
  • To receive a benefit (from); to be a beneficiary.
  • Usage notes

    * Benefiting and benefited are more common, with benefitting and benefitted being a minor variant especially in the US.

    Synonyms

    * help, batten

    Antonyms

    * malefic * detriment

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from "benefit") * benefit association * benefit dollar * benefit in kind * benefit of clergy * benefit principle * benefit society * benefit-cost analysis * benefit-cost ratio * benefits coordinator * bennies * cafeteria benefit * child tax benefit * core benefit * cost-benefit analysis * death benefit * elective benefit * employee benefit * equivalent annual benefit * family benefit * friend with benefits * fringe benefit * income-related benefit * injury benefit * maternity benefit * means-tested benefit * nonstatutory fringe benefit * nonwage benefit * private benefit * risk-benefit * sickness benefit * state benefit * stranded benefit * supplementary benefit * survivor benefit * unemployment benefit * variable death benefit *

    allowance

    Alternative forms

    * allowaunce (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance.
  • * Without the king's will or the state's allowance. --
  • Acknowledgment.
  • * The censure of the which one must in your allowance overweigh a whole theater of others. --
  • That which is allowed; a share or portion allotted or granted; a sum granted as a reimbursement, a bounty, or as appropriate for any purpose; a stated quantity, as of food or drink; hence, a limited quantity of meat and drink, when provisions fall short.
  • * I can give the boy a handsome allowance. -- .
  • Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances; as, to make allowance for the inexperience of youth.
  • * After making the largest allowance for fraud. -- .
  • (commerce) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret.
  • A child's allowance; pocket money.
  • She gives her daughters each an allowance of thirty dollars a month.
  • (minting) A permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coins, owing to the difficulty in securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.
  • (obsolete) approval; approbation
  • (Crabbe)
  • (obsolete) license; indulgence
  • (John Locke)

    Synonyms

    * (money) * (minting) (l), (l)

    Verb

    (allowanc)
  • To put upon a fixed allowance (especially of provisions and drink); to supply in a fixed and limited quantity.
  • The captain was obliged to allowance his crew.
    Our provisions were allowanced .