sponsors

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of sponsor.

   The festival's sponsors funded the main stage and the lighting rig.

   Several corporate sponsors withdrew their support after the controversy.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: as a noun it counts the backers, and as the present-tense verb it says what one of them does. An article usually gives the noun away (the sponsors were thanked); the verb follows a singular subject (the bank sponsors the race). The plural gathers every kind of sponsor: those who pay for an event in exchange for advertising, those who carry religious, legal or financial responsibility for another, and twelve-step mentors.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of sponsor.

   Each year the foundation sponsors several young scientists through college.

   A national bank sponsors the tournament and covers most of its costs.

   Note

   Here the form agrees with a single subject in the present: she sponsors, the foundation sponsors, while plural subjects take plain sponsor. The verb is transitive, so a direct object always follows. That object can be a person (sponsors a student) or an event (sponsors the tournament). For the spelling it shares with the noun, see the plural of the noun.

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