alimony
- 01 C1 Advanced
money that a person must pay to their former partner after they divorce or separate.
a court-ordered allowance paid by one spouse to the other for maintenance following a legal separation or divorce.
Simple“He had to pay his ex-wife monthly alimony for five years after their divorce.”
In context“The judge ruled that the alimony payments would terminate if the recipient remarried or if their financial circumstances improved significantly.”
UsageIn many modern legal systems, the term 'spousal support' or 'maintenance' is preferred over 'alimony'.
Teacher's tipWhile the metadata suggests this can be derogatory, in standard legal English it is a neutral technical term; however, it is often associated with contentious divorce cases.
Synonymsmaintenancespousal support
“Some of the bigger categories are alimony, child support and most taxes .”
Known since the 17th century, from Latin alimōnia (“food, support, nourishment, sustenance”) (English aliment, as in alimentary), itself from alō (“to nourish”) + -mōnia (“action, state, condition”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.