endowment.

1. A gift or accumulated fund provided to support an institution or activity, often intended to yield ongoing support.

2. A capacity, quality or resource with which someone or something is endowed.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• institutional endowment
• endowment income

On the page

The institutional endowment supported activity through its income under the donor’s restrictions.

Endowment income fell even though the institution retained the underlying fund.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Singular endowment; plural endowments. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: economic process explanation, financial distinction, incentive analysis, institutional change. Disciplines: economics, business, public policy. Commonness: moderately common.