- allot
- allot, assign, apportion, allocate mean to give as one’s share, portion, role, or place.Allot implies more or less arbitrary or haphazard selection and in itself conveys no suggestion of a fair or equal distribution{
allotted himself an hour a day for exercise
}{allot 500 square feet to an exhibitor
}{he had been allotted a small sitting room— Mackenzie
}{Brutus and Cassius . . . were allotted the minor governments of Crete and Cyrene— Buchan
}Assign stresses authoritative and usually fixed allotment; it too carries no hint of an even division{this original and supreme will organizes the government, and assigns to different departments their respective powers— John Marshall
}{to each month there has been assigned by tradition a birthstone considered appropriate to that month— Nurnberg & Rosenblum
}Apportion, on the other hand, implies a principle of fair division, sometimes of equivalence in sharing, but more often of a proportionate distribution{after each decennial census Congress apportions the number of representatives to be elected by each state
}{his guardians had apportioned to him an allowance . . . adequate to his position— Disraeli
}Allocate is used chiefly in reference to money, property, territory, or powers, and suggests definite appropriation to a particular person or group or dedication to a particular use{allocate a sum of money for the construction of a bridge
}{districts of Czechoslovakia allocated to Germany by the Munich Agreement
}{the Marine Corps would be allocated primary responsibility for amphibious development and doctrine pertaining to landing forces— Collier’s Yr. Bk.
}Analogous words: divide, dispense, *distribute, deal, dole: *give, bestow
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
