allocate

allocate — verb

1. to formally decide that a portion of money, time, space, or staff will go to a p

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to formally decide that a portion of money, time, space, or staff will go to a particular person, group, or use, usually as part of a larger plan.

Example

The Taipei City Council allocated NT$50 million to repair flood-damaged roads in Wenshan District.

allocate + amount + to + purpose

Each student is allocated a small locker near the science lab on the first day of term.

passive: be allocated + something

Common collocations
  • allocate funds
  • allocate resources
  • allocate time
  • allocate seats
  • allocate a budget
  • allocate responsibility
Synonyms
  • assign

    broader; can refer to tasks, people, or roles, not just resources

  • earmark

    stresses that the resource is set aside in advance and cannot be used for anything else

  • apportion

    more formal; emphasises dividing a total into fair or proportional shares

  • designate

    focuses on labelling something for a specific role, not on dividing a quantity

Antonyms
  • withhold

    to keep back resources rather than handing them over

Grammar Patterns

allocate + something + to + somebody/something

allocate + somebody/something + something

allocate + something + for + purpose

Usage Note

Subject is usually an institution, government, or person in authority — not a casual individual. The thing allocated is normally a limited resource (money, time, space, staff, seats), and there is almost always a stated recipient or purpose. Distinguish from 'distribute', which simply means to hand out without the planning nuance.

Common Mistakes

I allocated my friend the last cookie.
I gave my friend the last cookie.
'allocate' sounds too formal for everyday sharing; use it for official or planned distribution.
The manager allocated the budget.
The manager allocated the budget to the marketing team.
'allocate' usually needs a recipient or purpose; otherwise the sentence feels incomplete.

Word family

  • allocation
    nounC1
  • allocated
    adjectiveC1
  • allocator
    nounC2
  • reallocate
    verbC2
  • reallocation
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All five verbs describe handing something out, but the focus differs. 'Allocate' carries a planning nuance — a fixed total is divided among recipients or purposes by an authority, often in writing (a budget, a schedule). 'Assign' is broader and more personal: a manager assigns a task, a teacher assigns homework — the focus is on who is responsible, not on dividing a total. 'Earmark' stresses that the resource is reserved for one purpose and locked away from others, e.g. 'the city earmarked the land for a park.' 'Distribute' is the most neutral — it just means to spread something out, with no implication of planning. 'Apportion' is the most formal of all and highlights fair, proportional shares. Quick test: a charity allocates $10,000 to disaster relief, the director assigns three volunteers to deliver supplies, and the finance team earmarks half the donations for next year.

allocate ↗assign ↗earmark ↗distribute ↗apportion

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • allocate resources to
  • allocate funds for
  • allocate time to
  • be allocated according to

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinMedieval LatinEnglish

Allocate comes from the Medieval Latin verb 'allocare', meaning to place to or to assign a place. It is built from the Latin prefix 'ad-' (meaning 'to' or 'toward') and 'locare' (meaning 'to place'), which itself comes from 'locus' (a place). The word entered English in the seventeenth century, first in legal and accounting contexts where amounts were officially set aside in account books. The original sense of putting something in its proper place still echoes in modern usage, where allocating money or staff means assigning them to their planned slot.