amortize

[ am-er-tahyz, uh-mawr-tahyz ]

verb (used with object)

, am·or·tized, am·or·tiz·ing.

1. Finance.
   1. to liquidate or extinguish (a mortgage, debt, or other obligation), especially by periodic payments to the creditor or to a sinking fund.
   2. to write off a cost of (an asset) gradually.
2. Old English Law. to convey to a corporation or church group; alienate in mortmain.

amortize

/ əˈmɔːtaɪz /

verb

1. finance to liquidate (a debt, mortgage, etc) by instalment payments or by periodic transfers to a sinking fund
2. to write off (a wasting asset) by annual transfers to a sinking fund
3. property law (formerly) to transfer (lands, etc) in mortmain

Derived Forms

• aˈmortizable, adjective

Other Words From

• amor·tiza·ble adjective
• non·amor·tiza·ble adjective
• un·amor·tized adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of amortize¹

1375–1425; Middle English amortisen < Anglo-French, Old French amortiss-, long stem of amortir literally, to kill, die < Vulgar Latin *a ( d ) mortīre (derivative of Latin mors, stem mort- death, with ad- ad- ); -ize later replacing -is ( s )-, probably by association with Anglo-Latin a ( d ) mortizāre

Word History and Origins

Origin of amortize¹

C14: from Medieval Latin admortizāre, from Old French amortir to reduce to the point of death, ultimately from Latin ad to + mors death

Example Sentences

Through 2021, AD has been wading into worldwide launches, which help to raise site traffic and amortize content costs.

From Digiday

Nonetheless, team owners get to amortize, or write off, those assets, even as they actually rise in value.

From ProPublica

Since there is no functional limit on the number of void years a team can write into a contract, Julio’s 2021 cap hit could be amortized over as many years as needed.

From FiveThirtyEight

For most of these startups, once you have a customer using one financial product, much like traditional banks, they want you to use all of their other products as well to maximize customer value and amortize those high CAC costs.

From TechCrunch