Installment

Pronunciation

• enPR: Ä­n-stôlʹmÉ™nt, IPA: /ɪnˈstɔːlmÉ™nt/

Alternative forms

• instalment Commonwealth ''( - In the UK, instalment is the standard spelling.)

From install, itself from Old French installer, from Medieval Latin installare, from Latin in- + ML stallum 'stall' (from Germanic stal, see below)

Full definition of installment

Noun

1. The act of installing; installation.Take oaths from all kings and magistrates at their installment, to do impartial justice by law. Milton.
2. (obsolete) The seat in which one is placed.The several chairs of order, look, you scour; . . . Each fair installment, coat, and several crest With loyal blazon, evermore be blest. Shakespeare.

Synonyms

• investiture, investment
• installation

A 1732 alteration of estallment, from Anglo-Norman estaler ("fix payments"), from Old French estal ("fixed position"), from Old High German stal ("stall", "standing place")

The sense of "part of a whole produced in advance of the rest" is from 1823.

Noun

1. A portion of a debt, or sum of money, which is divided into portions that are made payable at different times. Payment by installment is payment by parts at different times, the amounts and times (often equal namely regular, e.g. mensual) being often definitely stipulated.
2. a part of a broadcast or published serial.
3. anything that is performed in parts, spread in time

Usage notes

For this sense in the UK, the OED permits only the spelling instalment. Commonwealth usage varies.

Synonyms

• (portion of a debt)
• (part of a broadcast or published serial) episode, part