allocate

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin allocāte, imperative of Latin allocāre, from ad- (“to”) + locus (“place”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæl.ə.keɪt/, enPR: ăl'ə-kāt

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

allocate (third-person singular simple present allocates, present participle allocating, simple past and past participle allocated)

1. To set aside for a purpose.

   Synonyms: appropriate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart

   Please do not eat the meringue, as it is allocated for the dinner party tomorrow.

   • 2024 January 10, Chris Gilson, “RAIL's famous five...”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 27:

     By March 1994, it had moved to Cardiff Canton, and was still allocated there when its nameplates were taken off in March 1997.

2. To distribute according to a plan, generally followed by the adposition to.

   The bulk of K–12 education funds are allocated to school districts that in turn pay for the cost of operating schools.

3. (computing) To reserve a portion of memory for use by a computer program.

   Antonyms: free, deallocate

   • 2011, José M. Garrido, Richard Schlesinger, Kenneth Hoganson, Principles of Modern Operating Systems, 2nd edition, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, page 264:

     The memory manager allocates memory to requesting processes until there is no more memory available or until there are no more processes waiting for memory.

Derived terms

• allocable
• allocatable
• allocatee
• allocative
• allocator
• misallocate
• overallocate
• preallocate
• reallocate
• suballocate
• underallocate

 

Related terms

• allocable

Translations

to set aside for a purpose

• Arabic: خَصَّصَ (ḵaṣṣaṣa)
• Bulgarian: заделям (zadeljam), предназначавам (bg) (prednaznačavam)
• Czech: vyčlenit pf, alokovat (cs) impf or pf, vyčleňovat impf
• Esperanto: asigni
• Estonian: varuma,
• Finnish: varata (fi), allokoida (fi)
• French: allouer (fr)
• Hungarian: félretesz (hu), tartalékol (hu)
• Irish: gearr
• Italian: stanziare (it)
• Japanese: 取り置く (とりおく, torioku)
• Persian: اختصاص دادن
• Polish: przydzielać (pl) impf, przydzielić (pl) pf, asygnować impf (money, literary), wyasygnować pf (money, literary)
• Portuguese: alocar (pt)
• Romanian: aloca (ro), repartiza (ro)
• Russian: выделя́ть (ru) impf (vydeljátʹ), вы́делить (ru) pf (výdelitʹ), назнача́ть (ru) impf (naznačátʹ), назна́чить (ru) pf (naznáčitʹ), предназнача́ть (ru) impf (prednaznačátʹ), предназна́чить (ru) pf (prednaznáčitʹ)
• Spanish: asignar (es), adjudicar (es)
• Swedish: avsätta (sv)
• Turkish: tahsis etmek (tr), ayırmak (tr)

to distribute according to a plan

• Bulgarian: разпределям (bg) (razpredeljam), отпускам (bg) (otpuskam)
• Estonian: jaotama
• Finnish: jyvittää (fi), jakaa (fi)
• French: allouer (fr)
• German: zuteilen (de)
• Hungarian: kioszt (hu), beoszt (hu), allokál, juttat (hu), kijelöl (hu), kiutal (hu), engedélyez (hu), meghatároz (hu), megállapít (hu), előirányoz (hu), eloszt (hu), szétoszt (hu)
• Irish: gearr
• Japanese: 配置する (ja) (はいちする, haichi suru)
• Maori: whakarato, toha, tohatoha, tuw(h)a, tuw(h)atuw(h)a
• Polish: przydzielić (pl)
• Portuguese: alocar (pt)
• Russian: распределя́ть (ru) impf (raspredeljátʹ), распредели́ть (ru) pf (raspredelítʹ)
• Turkish: paylaştırmak (tr)

computing: to reserve a portion of memory for use by a computer program

• Esperanto: okupi (eo), krei, disponigi
• Finnish: varata (fi)
• French: allouer (fr)
• German: allozieren (de)
• Hungarian: lefoglal (hu), kioszt (hu)
• Polish: alokować impf
• Portuguese: alocar (pt)

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

allocate

1. inflection of allocare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

allocate f pl

1. feminine plural of allocato

Anagrams

• ocellata

Latin

Verb

allocāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of allocō