contribution
Pluralcontributions
- 1
- 2An amount of money given to help fund a cause, project, or shared expense.
The senator returned the campaign contribution after questions about its source.
Employees can set up an automatic monthly contribution to their retirement account.
Similardonation, gift, payment, deposit
Oppositewithdrawal
Note
Money is where the word is most concrete, and its phrasing follows a set pattern. One makes a contribution, the sum follows with of, and the beneficiary with for: a contribution of $100 for the victims of the flood. The word still carries the idea of adding to a larger whole. The money is one share going toward something bigger, such as a fund, a campaign or a cause.
- 3The act of giving or adding something toward a larger effort, fund, or shared purpose.
The encyclopedia depends on voluntary contribution from thousands of users.
Active contribution during meetings is expected of everyone on the committee.
Similarparticipation, input, involvement
- 4A person's part in a shared endeavor, especially work regarded as having advanced a field such as science or the arts.
Her contribution to genetics earned recognition long after her death.
Historians still debate his contribution to the early development of computing.
Similarrole, part, input, achievement
Note
Here the word passes judgment as well as describing. To speak of someone's contribution to genetics or computing is to credit them with moving the field forward, not merely with taking part. That separates it from the bare act of contributing, which counts the giving itself. This sense weighs what the giving achieved, and it usually takes to plus the name of the field.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English contribucioun, borrowed via Old French contribution from Latin contribūtiō, which comes from the verb contribuēre. It can be analyzed as 'contribute' plus '-ion'.