dictionary of business

good

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FOURTH EDITION

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Dictionary of Banking and Finance 0 7136 7739 2

Dictionary of Science and Technology 0 7475 6620 8

Easier English™ titles:

Easier English Basic Dictionary 0 7475 6644 5

Easier English Dictionary: Handy Pocket Edition 0 7475 6625 9Easier English Intermediate Dictionary 0 7475 6989 4Easier English Student Dictionary 0 7475 6624 0

Check Your English Vocabulary workbooks:

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Originally published by Peter Collin Publishing

First published 1985

as English Business Dictionary

Second edition published 1994 reprinted 1995, 1997, 1999 Third edition published 2001 reprinted twice 2001 Fourth edition published 2004 reprinted 2006

A & C Black Publishers Ltd

be reproduced in any form or by any means without the

prior written permission of the publishers.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0224-4

Text production and proofreading

Katy McAdam, Joel Adams, Sarah Lusznat, Emma Harris

A & C Black uses paper produced with elemental chlorine-free pulp,

harvested from managed sustainable forests.

Text processing and computer typesetting by A & C Black

Printed and bound in Italy by Legoprint

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This dictionary provides the user with the basic vocabulary used in business

in both British and American English The dictionary contains words and phrases which cover all aspects of business life from the office to the Stock Exchange and international trade fairs.

It is designed for anyone who needs to check the meaning or pronunciation of

a business term, but especially for those for whom English is an additional language Each entry is explained in clear straightforward English and examples are given to show how the words are used in normal contexts Because English is a world language of business, short quotations are included from international newspapers.

Pronunciations, irregular plurals and verb forms, constructions used with particular words, differences between American and British usage, and other useful points are included At the back of the book, the user will find

supplements giving useful information about numbers (how to speak and write them), telephoning, and writing business letters, together with a list of world currencies, weights and measures, and local times around the world Thanks are due to Steven Gregory for his helpful comments and advice on this fourth edition of the dictionary.

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The following symbols have been used to show the pronunciation of the mainwords in the dictionary.

Stress is indicated by a main stress mark ( ) and a secondary stress mark ( ) Note that these are only guides, as the stress of the word changes according to itsposition in the sentence

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A

A /e/, AA, AAA noun letters that show

how reliable a particular share, bond or

company is considered to be 쑗 These

bonds have a AAA rating.

‘…the rating concern lowered its rating to

single-A from double-A, and its senior

debt rating to triple-B from single-A’

[Wall Street Journal]

COMMENT: The AAA rating is given by

Standard & Poor’s or by Moody’s, and

in-dicates a very high level of reliability for

a corporate or municipal bond in the US

A1

A1 /e wɒn/ adjective 1 in very good

condition 쑗 We sell only goods in A1

con-dition 2 왍 ship which is A1 at Lloyd’s

a ship which is in the best possible

condi-tion according to Lloyd’s Register

abandon

abandon /ə|bndən/ verb 1 to give up

or not continue doing something 쑗 We

abandoned the idea of setting up a New

York office 쑗 The development

pro-gramme had to be abandoned when the

company ran out of cash 왍 to abandon

an action to give up a court case 2 to

leave something 쑗 The crew abandoned

the sinking ship.

abandonment

abandonment /ə|bndənmənt/ noun

an act of giving up voluntarily something

that you own, such as an option or the

right to a property 왍 abandonment of a

ship giving up a ship and cargo to the

un-derwriters against payment for total loss

abatement

abatement /ə|betmənt/ noun an act

of reducing

abbreviated accounts

abbreviated accounts /ə|brivietd

ə|kaυnts/ noun a shortened version of a

company’s annual accounts that a small

or medium sized company can file with

the Registrar of Companies, instead of a

full version

above par

above par /ə|bv pɑ/ adjective

refer-ring to a share with a market price higher

than its par value

above the line

above the line /ə|bv ðə lan/

adjec-tive, adverb 1. used to describe entries in

a company’s profit and loss accounts thatappear above the line separating entriesshowing the origin of the funds that havecontributed to the profit or loss from thosethat relate to its distribution Exceptionaland extraordinary items appear above the

line 쑗 Exceptional items are noted above the line in company accounts 쒁 below the line 2 relating to revenue items in a government budget 3 relating to advertis-

ing for which payment is made (such as

an ad in a magazine or a stand at a tradefair) and for which a commission is paid

to an advertising agency Compare below the line

above-the-line advertising

above-the-line advertising /ə|bv

ðə lan dvətazŋ/ noun advertising

for which a payment is made and forwhich a commission is paid to the adver-tising agency, e.g an advertisement in amagazine or a stand at a trade fair Com-

pare below-the-line advertising (NOTE:

as opposed to direct marketing)

abroad

abroad /ə|brɔd/ adverb to or in another country 쑗 The consignment of cars was shipped abroad last week 쑗 The chairman is abroad on business 쑗 He worked abroad for ten years 쑗 Half of our profit comes from sales abroad.

absence

absence /bsəns/ noun the fact of not

being at work or at a meeting 왍 in the

ab-sence of when someone is not there 쑗 In the absence of the chairman, his deputy took the chair.

absent

absent /bsənt/ adjective not at work

or not at a meeting 쑗 He was absent ing to illness 쑗 Ten of the workers are absent with flu 쑗 The chairman is absent in Holland on business.

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ow-absentee 2

absentee

absentee /bsən|ti/ noun a person

who is absent or an employee who stays

away from work for no good reason

absenteeism

absenteeism /bs(ə)n|tiz(ə)m/

noun the practice of staying away from

work for no good reason 쑗 Low

produc-tivity is largely due to the high level of

ab-senteeism 쑗 Absenteeism is high in the

week before Christmas.

‘…but the reforms still hadn’t

fundamen-tally changed conditions on the shop floor:

absenteeism was as high as 20% on some

days’ [Business Week]

absenteeism rate

absenteeism rate /bsən|tiz(ə)m

ret/ noun the percentage of the

work-force which is away from work with no

good excuse 쑗 The rate of absenteeism or

the absenteeism rate always increases in

absorb /əb|zɔb/ verb to take in a small

item so that it forms part of a larger one 왍

to absorb overheads to include a

propor-tion of overhead costs into a producpropor-tion

cost (this is done at a certain rate, called

the ‘absorption rate’) 왍 overheads have

absorbed all our profits all our profits

have gone in paying overhead expenses 왍

to absorb a loss by a subsidiary to

in-clude a subsidiary company’s loss in the

group accounts 왍 a business which has

been absorbed by a competitor a small

business which has been made part of a

larger one

absorption

absorption /əb|zɔpʃən/ noun the

process of making a smaller business part

of a larger one, so that the smaller

compa-ny in effect no longer exists

absorption costing

absorption costing /əb|zɔpʃən

kɒstŋ/ noun a form of costing for a

product that includes both the direct costs

of production and the indirect overhead

costs as well

absorption rate

absorption rate /əb|zɔpʃən ret/

noun a rate at which overhead costs are

absorbed into each unit of production

abstract

abstract /bstrkt/ noun a short form

of a report or document 쑗 to make an

ab-stract of the company accounts

abstract of title

abstract of title /b|strkt əv

tat(ə)l/ noun a summary of the details

of the ownership of a property which has

not been registered

a/c

a/c, acc abbr account

ACAS

ACAS /eks/ abbr Advisory,

Concili-ation and ArbitrConcili-ation Service

accelerate

accelerate /ək|seləret/ verb to make

something go faster

acceleration clause

acceleration clause /ək|selə|reʃən

klɔz/ noun US a clause in a contract

providing for immediate payment of thetotal balance if there is a breach of con-tract

accept

accept /ək|sept/ verb 1 to take

some-thing which is being offered 왍 to accept delivery of a shipment to take goods into

the warehouse officially when they are

delivered 2 to say ‘yes’ or to agree to

something 쑗 She accepted the offer of a job in Australia 쑗 He accepted £2000 in lieu of notice.

acceptable

acceptable /ək|septəb(ə)l/ adjective easily accepted 쑗 Both parties found the offer acceptable 쑗 The terms of the contract of employment are not acceptable to the candidate.

acceptance

acceptance /ək|septəns/ noun 1 the

act of signing a bill of exchange to showthat you agree to pay it 왍 to present a bill for acceptance to present a bill for payment by the person who has accepted it 2.

왍 acceptance of an offer the act of

agree-ing to an offer 왍 to give an offer a tional acceptance to accept an offer pro-

condi-vided that specific things happen or thatspecific terms apply 왍 we have their letter of acceptance we have received a let-

ter from them accepting the offer

acceptance against documents

acceptance against documents

/ək|septəns ə!enst dɒkjυmənts/ noun

a transaction where the seller takes charge

of the shipping documents for a ment of goods when a buyer accepts a bill

consign-of exchange 쑗 Acceptance against ments protects the seller when sending goods which are not yet paid for.

docu-acceptance bank

acceptance bank /ək|septəns bŋk/

noun US same as accepting house

acceptance house

acceptance house /ək|septəns

haυs/ noun same as accepting house

acceptance sampling

acceptance sampling /ək|septəns

sɑmplŋ/ noun the process of testing a

small sample of a batch to see if the wholebatch is good enough to be accepted

accepting house

accepting house /ək|septŋ haυs/

noun a firm, usually a merchant bank,which accepts bills of exchange at a dis-count, in return for immediate payment to

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3 account

the issuer, in this case the Bank of

Eng-land

Accepting Houses Committee

Accepting Houses Committee /ək|

septŋ haυzz kə|mti/ noun the main

London merchant banks, which organise

the lending of money with the Bank of

England They receive slightly better

dis-count rates from the Bank

access

access /kses/ noun 왍 to have access

to something to be able to obtain or reach

something 쑗 She has access to large

amounts of venture capital 쐽 verb to call

up data which is stored in a computer 쑗

She accessed the address file on the

access time /kses tam/ noun the

time taken by a computer to find data

stored in it

accident

accident /ksd(ə)nt/ noun

some-thing unpleasant which can be caused by

carelessness or which happens by chance

such as a plane crash

accident insurance

accident insurance /ksd(ə)nt n|

ʃυərəns/ noun insurance which will pay

the insured person when an accident takes

place

accident policy

accident policy /ksd(ə)nt pɒlsi/

noun an insurance contract which

pro-vides a person with accident insurance

accommodation

accommodation /ə|kɒmə|deʃ(ə)n/

noun 1. money lent for a short time 2 왍

to reach an accommodation with

credi-tors to agree terms for settlement with

creditors 3 a place to stay temporarily or

live in 쑗 Visitors have difficulty in finding

hotel accommodation during the summer.

‘…any non-resident private landlord can

let furnished or unfurnished

accommoda-tion to a tenant’ [Times]

‘…the airline providing roomy

accommo-dations at below-average fares’ [Dun’s

Business Month]

accommodation address

accommodation address /ə|kɒmə|

deʃ(ə)n ə|dres/ noun an address used

for receiving messages, but which is not

the real address of the company

accommodation bill

accommodation bill /ə|kɒmə|

deʃ(ə)n bl/ noun a bill of exchange

where the person signing (the ‘drawee’) is

helping another company (the ‘drawer’)

to raise a loan

accompany

accompany /ə|kmp(ə)ni/ verb to go

with 쑗 The chairman came to the meeting

accompanied by the finance director 쑗

They sent a formal letter of complaint, companied by an invoice for damage.

ac-(NOTE: accompanied by something)

accordance

accordance /ə|kɔd(ə)ns/ noun 왍 in accordance with in agreement or con-

formity with, as a result of what someone

has said should be done 쑗 In accordance with your instructions we have deposited the money in your current account 쑗 I am submitting the claim for damages in accordance with the advice of our legal ad- visers.

according to /ə|kɔdŋ tu/

preposi-tion 1. in accordance with 쑗 The ter was installed according to the manu-

compu-facturer’s instructions 2. as stated orshown by someone

‘…the budget targets for employment andgrowth are within reach according to the

latest figures’ [Australian Financial

Re-view]

account

account /ə|kaυnt/ noun 1 a record of

financial transactions over a period oftime, such as money paid, received, bor-

rowed or owed 쑗 Please send me your count or a detailed or an itemised ac-

ac-count 2 (in a shop) an arrangementwhich a customer has to buy goods andpay for them at a later date, usually the

end of the month 쑗 to have an account or

a charge account or a credit account with Harrods 쑗 Put it on my account or charge

it to my account 쑗 They are one of our largest accounts 왍 to open an account

(of a customer) to ask a shop to supply

goods which you will pay for at a laterdate 왍 to open an account, to close an account (of a shop) to start or to stop sup-

plying a customer on credit 왍 to settle an account to pay all the money owed on an

account 왍 to stop an account to stop

sup-plying a customer until payment has been

made for goods supplied 3 왍 on account

as part of a total bill 왍 to pay money on account to pay to settle part of a bill 왍 advance on account money paid as a part payment 4 a customer who does a large

amount of business with a firm and has an

account with it 쑗 Smith Brothers is one of our largest accounts 쑗 Our sales people call on their best accounts twice a month.

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accountability 4

5 왍 to keep the accounts to write each

sum of money in the account book 쑗 The

bookkeeper’s job is to enter all the money

received in the accounts 왍 profit and

loss account (P&L account) statement

of company expenditure and income over

a period of time, almost always one

calen-dar year, showing whether the company

has made a profit or loss (the balance

sheet shows the state of a company’s

fi-nances at a certain date; the profit and loss

account shows the movements which

have taken place since the last balance

sheet) 6 왍 overdrawn account an

ac-count where you have taken out more

money than you have put in, i.e the bank

is effectively lending you money 왍 to

open an account to start an account by

putting money in 쑗 She opened an

ac-count with the Bradford & Bingley

Build-ing Society 왍 to close an account to take

all money out of a bank account and stop

the account 쑗 We closed our account with

Lloyds 7. a period during which shares

are traded for credit, and at the end of

which the shares bought must be paid for

(NOTE: On the London Stock Exchange,

there are twenty-four accounts during

the year, each running usually for ten

working days.) 8 a notice 왍 to take

ac-count of inflation, to take inflation into

account to assume that there will be a

specific percentage of inflation when

making calculations 쐽 verb 왍 to account

for to explain and record a money

trans-action 쑗 to account for a loss or a

dis-crepancy 쑗 The reps have to account for

all their expenses to the sales manager.

accountability

accountability /ə|kaυntə|blti/ noun

the fact of being responsible to someone

for something, e.g the accountability of

directors to the shareholders

accountable

accountable /ə|kaυntəb(ə)l/

adjec-tive referring to a person who has to

ex-plain what has taken place or who is

re-sponsible for something (NOTE: You are

accountable to someone for

some-thing.)

accountancy

accountancy /ə|kaυntənsi/ noun the

work of an accountant 쑗 They are

study-ing accountancy or They are accountancy

students (NOTE: The US term is

ac-counting in this meaning.)

account book

account book /ə|kaυnt bυk/ noun a

book with printed columns which is used

to record sales and purchases

account day

account day /ə|kaυnt de/ noun a day

on which shares which have been boughtmust be paid for, usually a Monday tendays after the end of an account Also

called settlement day

account end

account end /ə|kaυnt end/ noun the

end of an accounting period

account executive

account executive /ə|kaυnt !|

zekjυtv/ noun an employee who looks

after customers or who is the link betweencustomers and the company

accounting

accounting /ə|kaυntŋ/ noun 1 the

work of recording money paid, received,

borrowed or owed 쑗 accounting methods

쑗 accounting procedures 쑗 an

account-ing machine 2. accountancy, the work of

an accountant as a course of study

‘…applicants will be professionally fied and have a degree in Commerce orAccounting’

quali-[Australian Financial Review]

accounting period

accounting period /ə|kaυntŋ

pəriəd/ noun a period of time at the end

of which the firm’s accounts are made up

accounts

accounts /ə|kaυnts/ noun detailed

records of a company’s financial affairs

accounts department

accounts department /ə|kaυnts d|

pɑtmənt/ noun a department in a

com-pany which deals with money paid, ceived, borrowed or owed

re-accounts manager

accounts manager /ə|kaυnts

mnd$ə/ noun the manager of an

ac-counts department

accounts payable

accounts payable /ə|kaυnts

peəb(ə)l/ noun money owed by a

com-pany

accounts receivable

accounts receivable /ə|kaυnts r|

sivəb(ə)l/ noun money owed to a

com-pany Abbreviation AR

accounts staff

accounts staff /ə|kaυntz stɑf/ noun

people who work in the accounts ment

depart-accreditation

accreditation /ə|kred|teʃ(ə)n/ noun

the process of certifying the competence

of a person in a certain area

accredited

accredited /ə|kredtd/ adjective

re-ferring to an agent who is appointed by acompany to act on its behalf

accrual

accrual /ə|kruəl/ noun 1 the act of

noting financial transactions when theytake place, and not when payment is made

2 a gradual increase by addition 왍

accru-al of interest the automatic addition of

in-terest to capital

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5 acquisition rate

accrue

accrue /ə|kru/ verb 1 to record a

fi-nancial transaction in accounts when it

takes place, and not when payment is

made or received 2 to increase and be due

for payment at a later date 쑗 Interest

ac-crues from the beginning of the month.

accrued dividend

accrued dividend /ə|krud dv|

dend/ noun a dividend earned since the

last dividend was paid

accrued interest

accrued interest /ə|krud ntrəst/

noun interest which has been earned by

an interest-bearing investment 쑗 Accrued

interest is added quarterly.

accrued liabilities

accrued liabilities /ə|krud laə|

bltiz/ noun liabilities which are

record-ed in an accounting period, although

pay-ment has not yet been made This refers to

liabilities such as rent, electricity, etc

acct

acct abbr account

accumulate

accumulate /ə|kjumjυlet/ verb to

grow in quantity by being added to, or to

get more of something over a period of

time 쑗 We allow dividends to accumulate

in the fund.

accumulated profit

accumulated profit /ə|

kjumjυletd prɒft/ noun a profit

which is not paid as dividend but is taken

over into the accounts of the following

year

accumulated reserves

accumulated reserves /ə|

kjumjυletd r|z&vz/ plural noun

re-serves which a company has put aside

over a period of years

accumulation unit

accumulation unit /ə|kjumjυ|

leʃ(ə)n junt/ noun a type of unit in a

unit trust, which produces dividends

which are used to form more units (as

op-posed to an income unit, which produces

dividends which the investor receives as

income)

accurate

accurate /kjυrət/ adjective correct

쑗 The sales department made an accurate

forecast of sales 쑗 The designers

pro-duced an accurate copy of the plan.

accuse

accuse /ə|kjuz/ verb to say that

some-one has committed a crime 쑗 She was

ac-cused of stealing from the petty cash box.

쑗 He was accused of industrial

espio-nage (NOTE: You accuse someone of a

crime or of doing something.)

achieve

achieve /ə|tʃiv/ verb to succeed in

do-ing somethdo-ing, to do somethdo-ing

success-fully 쑗 He has achieved his long-term

training objectives 쑗 The company has

achieved great success in the Far East 쑗

We achieved all our objectives in 2001.

‘…the company expects to move to profits

of FFr 2m next year and achieve equallyrapid growth in following years’

[Financial Times]

achievement

achievement /ə|tʃivmənt/ noun

suc-cess or something that has been achieved

achiever

achiever /ə|tʃivə/ noun a person who

is successful or who tends to achieve his

or her objectives 쑗 It was her reputation

as a high achiever that made us think of headhunting her 쒁 VALS

acid test ratio

acid test ratio /sd test reʃəυ/

noun same as liquidity ratio

acknowledge

acknowledge /ək|nɒld$/ verb to tell a

sender that a letter, package or shipment

has arrived 쑗 He has still not edged my letter of the 24th 쑗 We acknowledge receipt of your letter of June 14th.

acknowl-acknowledgement

acknowledgement /ək|nɒld$mənt/

noun the act of acknowledging 쑗 She sent

an acknowledgement of receipt 쑗 The company sent a letter of acknowledgement after I sent in my job application.

acoustic hood

acoustic hood /ə|kustk hυd/ noun

a cover which is put over a printer to duce the noise level

re-a/c payee

a/c payee /e siə pe|i/ words writtenbetween the two lines on a crossedcheque, to show that it can only be paidinto the account of the person whosename is written on the cheque (allcheques have this printed on them)

acquire

acquire /ə|kwaə/ verb to buy 쑗 to quire a company 쑗 We have acquired a new office building in the centre of town.

ac-acquirer

acquirer /ə|kwaərə/ noun a person or

company which buys something

acquisition

acquisition /kw|zʃ(ə)n/ noun 1.

something bought 쑗 The chocolate

facto-ry is our latest acquisition 2. the takeover

of a company The results and cash flows

of the acquired company are brought intothe group accounts only from the date ofacquisition: the figures for the previousperiod for the reporting entity should not

be adjusted The difference between thefair value of the net identifiable assets ac-quired and the fair value of the purchase

consideration is goodwill 3 the act of

getting or buying something

acquisition rate

acquisition rate /kw|zʃ(ə)n ret/

noun a figure that indicates how much

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acre 6

new business is being won by a

compa-ny’s marketing activities

acre

acre /ekə/ noun a measure of the area

of land (= 0.45 hectares) (NOTE: The

plu-ral is used with figures, except before a

noun: he has bought a farm of 250

acres, he has bought a 250 acre farm.)

across-the-board

across-the-board /ə|krɒs ðə bɔd/

adjective applying to everything or

every-one 쑗 an across-the-board price increase

or wage increase

act

act /kt/ noun a law passed by

parlia-ment which must be obeyed by the people

쐽 verb to do something 쑗 The board will

have to act quickly if the company’s losses

are going to be reduced 왍 to act on

something to do what you have been

asked to do by someone 쑗 to act on a

let-ter 쑗 The lawyers are acting on our

in-structions.

ACT

ACT abbr Advance Corporation Tax

acting

acting /ktŋ/ adjective working in

place of someone for a short time 쑗

act-ing manager 쑗 the Acting Chairman

action

action /kʃən/ noun 1 a thing which

has been done 왍 to take action to do

something 쑗 You must take action if you

want to stop people cheating you 쑗 You

must take action if you want to improve

productivity 2 왍 to take industrial

ac-tion to do something (usually to go on

strike) to show that you are not happy

with conditions at work 3 a case in a law

court where a person or company sues

an-other person or company 왍 to take legal

action to sue someone 쑗 an action for

li-bel or a lili-bel action 쑗 an action for

dam-ages 쑗 She brought an action for

wrong-ful dismissal against her former

employ-er.

action-centred leadership

action-centred leadership /kʃən

sentəd lidəʃp/ noun a theory of

lead-ership which focuses on what leaders

ac-tually have to do in order to be effective,

rather than on the personal qualities that

they need to be good leaders, and which

believes that leadership can be taught

(NOTE: Action-centred leadership is

usu-ally illustrated by three overlapping

cir-cles, which represent the three key

ac-tivities undertaken by leaders: achieving

the task, building and maintaining the

team and developing the individual.)

action rationality

action rationality /'ʃ(ə)n rʃ(ə)n|

lti/ noun a decision-making model

that is designed to increase the motivationfor action by presenting only a limitedrange of alternatives and stressing onlythe positive outcomes

active

active /ktv/ adjective involving many transactions or activities 쑗 an active demand for oil shares 쑗 an active day

on the Stock Exchange 쑗 Computer shares are very active.

active partner

active partner /ktv pɑtnə/ noun

a partner who works in a company that is

[Australian Financial Review]

activity chart

activity chart /k|tvti tʃɑt/ noun a

plan showing work which has been done,made so that it can be compared to a pre-vious plan showing how much workshould be done

act of God

act of God /kt əv !ɒd/ noun

some-thing you do not expect to happen andwhich cannot be avoided, e.g a storm or aflood (NOTE: Acts of God are not usuallycovered by insurance policies.)

actuarial

actuarial /ktʃu|eəriəl/ adjective culated by an actuary 쑗 The premiums are worked out according to actuarial calculations.

cal-actuarial tables

actuarial tables /ktʃueəriəl

teb(ə)lz/ noun lists showing how long

people are likely to live, used to calculatelife assurance premiums and annuities

actuary

actuary /ktʃuəri/ noun a person

em-ployed by an insurance company or otherorganisation to calculate the risk involved

in an insurance, and therefore the ums payable by people taking out insur-ance

premi-ACU

ACU abbr Asian Currency Unit

ad

ad /d/ noun same as advertisement

(informal)쑗 We put an ad in the paper 쑗

She answered an ad in the paper 쑗 He found his job through an ad in the paper.

add

add /d/ verb to put figures together to make a total 쑗 If you add the interest to

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7 adjust

the capital you will get quite a large sum.

쑗 Interest is added monthly.

add up phrasal verb 1 to put several

figures together to make a total 쑗 He

made a mistake in adding up the column

of figures 왍 the figures do not add up

the total given is not correct 2 to make

sense 쑗 The complaints in the letter just

do not add up.

add up to phrasal verb to make a total

of 쑗 The total expenditure adds up to

more than £1,000.

added value

added value /dd vlju/ noun an

amount added to the value of a product or

service, equal to the difference between

its cost and the amount received when it is

sold Wages, taxes, etc are deducted from

the added value to give the profit 쒁 VAT

adding

adding /dŋ/ adjective which adds,

which makes additions 쑗 an adding

ma-chine

addition

addition /ə|dʃ(ə)n/ noun 1 a thing or

person added 쑗 The management has

stopped all additions to the staff 쑗 We are

exhibiting several additions to our

prod-uct line 쑗 The marketing director is the

latest addition to the board 2.왍 in

addi-tion to added to, as well as 쑗 There are

twelve registered letters to be sent in

ad-dition to this packet 3. an arithmetical

operation consisting of adding together

two or more numbers to make a sum 쑗

You don’t need a calculator to do simple

addition.

additional

additional /ə|dʃ(ə)nəl/ adjective extra

which is added 쑗 additional costs 쑗 They

sent us a list of additional charges 쑗

Some additional clauses were added to

the contract 쑗 Additional duty will have

to be paid.

additional premium

additional premium /ə|dʃ(ə)nəl

primiəm/ noun a payment made to

cov-er extra items in an existing insurance

address

address /ə|dres/ noun the details of

number, street and town where an office is

located or a person lives 쑗 My business

address and phone number are printed on

the card 쐽 verb to write the details of an

address on an envelope or package 쑗 a

letter addressed to the managing director

쑗 an incorrectly addressed package 쑗

Please address your enquiries to the

man-ager.

address book

address book /ə|dres bυk/ noun a

special notebook, with columns printed in

such a way that names, addresses andphone numbers can be entered

addressee

addressee /dre|si/ noun a person to

whom a letter or package is addressed

address list

address list /ə|dres lst/ noun a list of

names and addresses of people and panies

com-adequate

adequate /dkwət/ adjective more

or less satisfactory 쑗 The results of the tests on the product were adequate.

adhocracy /d|hɒkrəsi/ noun a form

of organisation characterised by a ble, organic structure, often comprisingexperts attached to project groups withoutfunctional divisions

flexi-adjourn

adjourn /ə|d$&n/ verb to stop a ing for a period 쑗 The chairman adjourned the meeting until three o’clock 쑗

meet-The meeting adjourned at midday 왍 journ a case sine die to postpone the

ad-hearing of a case without fixing a newdate for it

adjournment

adjournment /ə|d$&nmənt/ noun an act of adjourning 쑗 He proposed the adjournment of the meeting.

adjudicate

adjudicate /ə|d$udket/ verb to give

a judgement between two parties in law or

to decide a legal problem 쑗 to adjudicate

a claim 쑗 to adjudicate in a dispute 왍 he was adjudicated bankrupt he was de-

clared legally bankrupt

adjudication

adjudication /ə|d$ud|keʃ(ə)n/

noun the act of giving a judgement or ofdeciding a legal problem

adjudication of bankruptcy

adjudication of bankruptcy /ə|

d$udkeʃ(ə)n əv bŋkrptsi/ noun

a legal order making someone bankrupt

adjudication order

adjudication order /ə|d$ud|

keʃ(ə)n ɔdə/ noun an order by a court

making someone bankrupt

adjudication tribunal

adjudication tribunal /ə|d$ud|

keʃ(ə)n tra|bjun(ə)l/ noun a group

which adjudicates in industrial disputes

adjudicator

adjudicator /ə|d$udketə/ noun a

person who gives a decision on a problem

쑗 an adjudicator in an industrial dispute

adjust

adjust /ə|d$st/ verb to change thing to fit new conditions 쑗 Prices are adjusted for inflation.

some-‘…inflation-adjusted GNP moved up at a

1.3% annual rate’ [Fortune]

Trang 15

adjuster 8

‘Saudi Arabia will no longer adjust its

pro-duction to match short-term supply with

demand’ [Economist]

‘…on a seasonally-adjusted basis, output

of trucks, electric power, steel and paper

decreased’ [Business Week]

adjuster

adjuster /ə|d$stə/ noun a person who

calculates losses for an insurance

compa-ny

adjustment

adjustment /ə|d$stmənt/ noun the

act of adjusting 쑗 to make an adjustment

to salaries 쑗 an adjustment of prices to

take account of rising costs

adjustor

adjustor /ə|d$stə/ noun same as

ad-juster

admin

admin /dmn/ noun 1 the work of

ad-ministration, especially paperwork

(informal)쑗 All this admin work takes a

lot of my time 쑗 There is too much admin

in this job 쑗 Admin costs seem to be

ris-ing each quarter 쑗 The admin people

have sent the report back 2.

administra-tion staff or the administraadministra-tion

depart-ment 쑗 Admin say they need the report

immediately 쑗 She did not answer my

note but sent it on to admin (NOTE: no

plural; as a group of people it can have

a plural verb)

administer

administer /əd|mnstə/ verb to

or-ganise, manage or direct the whole of an

organisation or part of one 쑗 She

admin-isters a large pension fund 쑗 It will be the

HR manager’s job to administer the

in-duction programme.

administered price

administered price /əd|mnstəd

pras/ noun US a price fixed by a

manu-facturer which cannot be varied by a

re-tailer (NOTE: The UK term is resale

price maintenance.)

administration

administration /əd|mn|streʃ(ə)n/

noun 1. the action of organising,

control-ling or managing a company 2 a person

or group of people who manage or direct

an organisation 쑗 It is up to the

adminis-tration to solve the problem, not the

gov-ernment 3. the running of a company in

receivership by an administrator

appoint-ed by the courts 4 an appointment by a

court of a person to manage the affairs of

spensz/ plural noun the costs of

man-agement, not including production,

mar-keting or distribution costs

administrative

administrative /əd|mnstrətv/

ad-jective referring to administration 쑗 ministrative details 쑗 administrative expenses

ad-administrator

administrator /əd|mnstretə/ noun

1 a person who directs the work of other

employees in a business 쑗 After several years as a college teacher, she hopes to

become an administrator 2. a person pointed by a court to manage the affairs ofsomeone who dies without leaving a will

ap-3 a person appointed by a court to

admin-ister a company which is insolvent

admission

admission /əd|mʃ(ə)n/ noun an act of saying that something really happened 쑗

He had to resign after his admission that

he had passed information to the rival company.

admission charge

admission charge /əd|mʃ(ə)n

tʃɑd$/ noun the price to be paid before

going into an area or building, e.g to see

an exhibition

admit

admit /əd|mt/ verb to say that

some-thing is correct, to say that somesome-thing

re-ally happened 쑗 The chairman admitted

he had taken the cash from the company’s safe (NOTE: admitting – admitted)

admittance

admittance /əd|mt(ə)ns/ noun the act

of allowing someone to go in 쑗 no tance except on business

admit-adopt

adopt /ə|dɒpt/ verb to agree to

some-thing or to accept somesome-thing

adoption curve

adoption curve /ə|dɒpʃən k&v/

noun a line on a graph showing how manyconsumers adopt or buy a new product atvarious time periods after the launch date

쑗 The adoption curve shows that most people who buy the product do so at a fairly late stage.

ADR

ADR abbr American Depositary Receipt

ad valorem duty

ad valorem duty /d və|lɔrəm

djuti/ noun the duty calculated on the

sales value of the goods

ad valorem tax

ad valorem tax /d və|lɔrem tks/

noun a tax calculated according to thevalue of the goods taxed

advance

advance /əd|vɑns/ noun 1 money

paid as a loan or as a part of a payment to

be made later 쑗 She asked if she could have a cash advance 쑗 We paid her an advance on account 쑗 Can I have an advance of £100 against next month’s sala-

ry? 2. an increase 3 왍 in advance early,

before something happens 쑗 freight able in advance 쑗 prices fixed in advance

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pay-9 advertising agency

쐽 adjective early, or taking place before

something else happens 쑗 advance

pay-ment 쑗 Advance holiday bookings are up

on last year 쑗 You must give seven days’

advance notice of withdrawals from the

account 쐽 verb 1 to pay an amount of

money to someone as a loan or as a part of

a payment to be made later 쑗 The bank

advanced him £100,000 against the

secu-rity of his house 2. to increase 쑗 Prices

generally advanced on the stock market.

3 to make something happen earlier 쑗

The date of the AGM has been advanced

to May 10th 쑗 The meeting with the

Ger-man distributors has been advanced from

11.00 to 09.30.

Advance Corporation Tax

Advance Corporation Tax /əd|

vɑns kɔpə|reʃ(ə)n tks/ noun a tax

which was abolished in 1999, paid by a

company in advance of its main

corpora-tion tax payments It was paid when

divi-dends were paid to shareholders and was

deducted from the main tax payment

when that fell due It appeared on the tax

voucher attached to a dividend warrant

Abbreviation ACT

advanced manufacturing technology

advanced manufacturing

tech-nology /əd|vɑnst mnjυ|fktʃərŋ

tek|nɒləd$i/ noun modern

computer-based technology that can be introduced

at every stage of the manufacturing

proc-ess, from design through to assembly, to

make production faster and more

effi-cient Abbreviation AMT (NOTE:

Ad-vanced manufacturing technology

in-cludes such things as computer-aided

design, computer-aided engineering,

computer-integrated manufacturing,

au-tomated materials handling systems,

electronic data interchange and

robot-ics.)

advantage

advantage /əd|vɑntd$/ noun

some-thing useful which may help you to be

successful 쑗 Knowledge of two foreign

languages is an advantage 쑗 There is no

advantage in arriving at the exhibition

before it opens 쑗 Fast typing is an

advan-tage in a secretary 왍 to take advantage

of something to use something which

helps you

adventure training

adventure training /əd|ventʃə

trenŋ/, adventure learning /əd|

ventʃə l&nŋ/ noun a type of training

in which employees engage in group

games and physically demanding outdoor

activities such as climbing and abseiling

away from their usual work environment(NOTE: The aim of adventure training is

to develop skills in leadership, solving, decision-making and interper-sonal communication and to build teamspirit.)

problem-adverse

adverse /dv&s/ adjective

unfavoura-ble 왍 adverse balance of trade a

situa-tion in which a country imports more than

it exports 왍 adverse trading conditions

bad conditions for trade

advert

advert /dv&t/ noun same as tisement (informal )쑗 to put an advert in the paper 쑗 to answer an advert in the paper 쑗 classified adverts 쑗 display adverts

adver-advertise

advertise /dvətaz/ verb to arrange

and pay for publicity designed to help sellproducts or services or to find new em-

ployees 쑗 to advertise a vacancy 쑗 to vertise for a secretary 쑗 to advertise a new product

ad-advertisement

advertisement /əd|v&tsmənt/ noun

a notice which shows that something isfor sale, that a service is offered, thatsomeone wants something or that a job isvacant

v&tsmənt mnd$ə/ noun the

man-ager in charge of the advertisement tion of a newspaper

sec-advertisement panel

advertisement panel /əd|

v&tsmənt pn(ə)l/ noun a specially

designed large advertising space in anewspaper

advertiser

advertiser /dvətazə/ noun a person

or company that advertises 쑗 The logue gives a list of advertisers.

cata-advertising

advertising /dvətazŋ/ noun the

business of announcing that something isfor sale or of trying to persuade customers

to buy a product or service 쑗 She works in advertising or She has a job in advertising 쑗 Their new advertising campaign is being launched next week 쑗 The compa-

ny has asked an advertising agent to pare a presentation 왍 to take advertising space in a paper to book space for an

pre-advertisement in a newspaper

advertising agency

advertising agency /dvətazŋ

ed$ənsi/ noun an office which plans,

designs and manages advertising for othercompanies

Trang 17

advertising budget 10

advertising budget

advertising budget /dvətazŋ

bd$t/ noun money planned for

spend-ing on advertisspend-ing 쑗 Our advertising

budget has been increased.

advertising campaign

advertising campaign /dvətazŋ

km|pen/ noun a co-ordinated publicity

or advertising drive to sell a product

advertising jingle

advertising jingle /dvətazŋ

d$ŋ!(ə)l/ noun a short and easily

re-membered tune or song to advertise a

product on television, etc

advertising manager

advertising manager /dvətazŋ

mnd$ə/ noun the manager in charge

of advertising a company’s products

advertising medium

advertising medium /dvətazŋ

midiəm/ noun a type of advertisement,

e.g a TV commercial 쑗 The product was

advertised through the medium of the

trade press (NOTE: The plural for this

meaning is media.)

advertising rates

advertising rates /dvətazŋ

rets/ noun the amount of money charged

for advertising space in a newspaper or

advertising time on TV

advertising space

advertising space /dvətazŋ

spes/ noun a space in a newspaper set

aside for advertisements

advertorial

advertorial /dvə|tɔriəl/ noun text

in a magazine which is not written by the

editorial staff but by an advertiser

advice

advice /əd|vas/ noun 1 a notification

telling someone what has happened 2 an

opinion as to what action to take 쑗 The

accountant’s advice was to send the

doc-uments to the police 왍 to take legal

ad-vice to ask a lawyer to say what should be

done 앳 as per advice according to what

is written on the advice note

advice note

advice note /əd|vas nəυt/ noun the

written notice to a customer giving details

of goods ordered and shipped but not yet

delivered Also called letter of advice

advise

advise /əd|vaz/ verb 1 to tell someone

what has happened 쑗 We have been

ad-vised that the shipment will arrive next

week 2. to suggest to someone what

should be done 쑗 The lawyer advised us

to send the documents to the police.

advise against phrasal verb to

sug-gest that something should not be done

쑗 The HR manager advised against

dis-missing the staff without notice.

adviser

adviser /əd|vazə/, advisor noun a

person who suggests what should be done

쑗 He is consulting the company’s legal adviser.

advisory

advisory /əd|vaz(ə)ri/ adjective as an adviser 쑗 She is acting in an advisory ca- pacity.

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service

Advisory, Conciliation and tration Service /əd|vaz(ə)ri kənsli|

Arbi-eʃ(ə)n ənd ɑb|treʃ(ə)n s&vs/

noun a British government service whicharbitrates in disputes between manage-ment and employees Abbreviation

ACAS

advisory board

advisory board /əd|vaz(ə)ri bɔd/

noun a group of advisors

affair

affair /ə|feə/ noun business or dealings

쑗 Are you involved in the copyright fair? 쑗 His affairs were so difficult to un- derstand that the lawyers had to ask ac- countants for advice.

af-affect

affect /ə|fekt/ verb to cause some

change in something, especially to have a

bad effect on something 쑗 The new ernment regulations do not affect us.

gov-affidavit

affidavit /f|devt/ noun a written

statement which is signed and sworn fore a solicitor, judge, JP, etc., and whichcan then be used as evidence in court

be-affiliate

affiliate /ə|fliet/ noun a company

which partly owns another company, or ispartly owned by the same holding compa-

ny as another

affiliated

affiliated /ə|fletd/ adjective

con-nected with or owned by another

compa-ny 쑗 Smiths Ltd is one of our affiliated companies.

affiliate programme

affiliate programme /ə|fliət

prəυ!rm/ noun an arrangement under

which the owners of websites agree todisplay banners and buttons advertisinganother company’s products or services

on their websites in return for a sion on any purchases from the advertisermade by their customers

commis-affinity card

affinity card /ə|fnti kɑd/ noun a

credit card where a percentage of eachpurchase made is given by the credit cardcompany to a stated charity

affirmative

affirmative /ə|f&mətv/ adjective

meaning ‘yes’ 왍 the answer was in the affirmative the answer was yes

affirmative action

affirmative action /ə|f&mətv

kʃən/ noun US the practice of

provid-ing opportunities for disadvantagedgroups such as ethnic minorities, women

or people with disabilities

Trang 18

11 aggregate demand

affluence

affluence /fluəns/ noun wealth and a

high standard of living

affluent society

affluent society /fluənt sə|saəti/

noun a type of society where most people

are rich

afford

afford /ə|fɔd/ verb to be able to pay for

or buy something 쑗 We could not afford

the cost of two telephones 쑗 The

compa-ny cannot afford the time to train new

staff (NOTE: Only used after can,

can-not, could, could can-not, able to)

AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO noun an organisation linking

US trade unions Full form American

Federation of Labor – Congress of

In-dustrial Organisations

after-hours buying

after-hours buying /ɑftə aυəz/,

af-ter-hours selling, afaf-ter-hours dealing

noun the activity of buying, selling or

dealing in shares after the Stock

Ex-change has officially closed for the day,

such deals being subject to normal Stock

Exchange rules In this way, dealers can

take advantage of the fact that because of

time differences, the various stock

ex-changes around the world are open almost

all twenty-four hours of the day

after-hours trading

after-hours trading /ɑftə aυəz

tredŋ/ noun trading after the Stock

Ex-change had closed

after-sales service

after-sales service /ɑftə selz

s&vs/ noun a service of a machine

car-ried out by the seller for some time after

the machine has been bought

after-tax profit

after-tax profit /ɑftə tks prɒft/

noun a profit after tax has been deducted

against

against /ə|!enst/ preposition 1 in view

of the fact that something else is owed or

has been pledged 쑗 Can I have an

ad-vance against next month’s salary? 쑗 The

bank advanced him £10,000 against the

security of his house 2. compared with

‘…investment can be written off against

the marginal rate of tax’ [Investors

Chron-icle]

aged debtors analysis

aged debtors analysis /ed$d

detəz ə|nləss/, ageing schedule

/ed$ŋ ʃedjul/ noun a list which

anal-yses a company’s debtors, showing the

number of days their payments are

out-standing

COMMENT: An ageing schedule shows all

the debtors of a company and lists

(usu-ally in descending order of age) all the

debts that are outstanding The debtors

will be shown as: £X at 30 days, £Y at 60

age discrimination

age discrimination /ed$ dskrm|

neʃ(ə)n/ noun unfair treatment

result-ing from prejudice against a person on thegrounds of their age (NOTE: Countriessuch as Australia and the United Stateshave passed laws to make age discrim-ination illegal)

ageism

ageism /ed$z(ə)m/ noun unfair

dis-crimination against older people

age limit

age limit /ed$ lmt/ noun the top age

at which you are allowed to do a job 쑗

There is an age limit of thirty-five on the post of buyer.

agency

agency /ed$ənsi/ noun 1 an office or

job of representing another company in

an area 쑗 They signed an agency

agree-ment or an agency contract 2 an office or

business which arranges things for othercompanies

agency labour

agency labour /ed$ənsi lebə/

noun staff supplied by an employmentagency

agenda

agenda /ə|d$endə/ noun a list of things

to be discussed at a meeting 쑗 The ence agenda or the agenda of 쑗 After two hours we were still discussing the first item on the agenda 쑗 We usually put finance at the top of the agenda 쑗 The chair wants two items removed from or taken off the agenda.

confer-agent

agent /ed$ənt/ noun 1 a person who

represents a company or another person

in an area 쑗 to be the agent for BMW cars

쑗 to be the agent for IBM 2 a person in

charge of an agency 쑗 an advertising agent 쑗 The estate agent sent me a list of properties for sale 쑗 Our trip was organ-

ised through our local travel agent 3 왍

(business) agent US the chief local

offi-cial of a trade union 쑗 Management would only discuss the new payment scheme with agents officially representing the workers.

agent’s commission

agent’s commission /ed$ənts kə|

mʃ(ə)n/ noun money, often a

percent-age of sales, paid to an percent-agent

aggregate

aggregate /!r!ət/ adjective total, with everything added together 쑗 aggregate output

aggregate demand

aggregate demand /!r!ət d|

mɑnd/ noun the total demand for goods

and services from all sectors of the omy including individuals, companies

econ-and the government 쑗 Economists are studying the recent fall in aggregate de-

Trang 19

aggregate supply 12

mand 쑗 As incomes have risen, so has

aggregate demand.

aggregate supply

aggregate supply /!r!ət sə|pla/

noun all goods and services on the market

쑗 Is aggregate supply meeting aggregate

demand?

aggregator

aggregator /!r!etə/ noun an

or-ganisation that acts as a link between

pro-ducers and customers in business dealings

over the Internet The aggregator selects

products for sale over the Internet, sets

prices, and ensures that orders are

ful-filled

agio

agio /d$əυ/ noun 1 a charge made

for changing money of one currency into

another, or for changing banknotes into

cash 2 the difference between two

val-ues, such as between the interest charged

on loans made by a bank and the interest

paid by the bank on deposits, or the

differ-ence between the values of two currencies

agree /ə|!ri/ verb 1 to decide and

ap-prove something together with another

person or other people 쑗 The figures were

agreed between the two parties 쑗 We

have agreed the budgets for next year 쑗

The terms of the contract are still to be

agreed 2.왍 to agree on something to

come to a decision that is acceptable to

everyone about something 쑗 We all

agreed on the need for action 3 왍 to

agree to something to say that you accept

something that is suggested 쑗 After some

discussion he agreed to our plan 왍 to

agree to do something to say that you

will do something 쑗 She agreed to be

chairman 쑗 Will the finance director

agree to resign? 4. to be the same as 쑗

The two sets of calculations do not agree.

agree with phrasal verb 1 to say that

your opinions are the same as someone

else’s 쑗 I agree with the chairman that

the figures are lower than normal 2. to

be the same as 쑗 The auditors’ figures

do not agree with those of the accounts

department.

agreed

agreed /ə|!rid/ adjective having been

accepted by everyone 쑗 We pay an agreed

amount each month 쑗 The agreed terms

of employment are laid down in the

con-tract.

agreed price

agreed price /ə|!rid pras/ noun a

price which has been accepted by both thebuyer and seller

agreed takeover bid

agreed takeover bid /ə|!rid

tekəυvə bd/ noun a takeover bid

which is accepted by the target companyand recommended by its directors to itsshareholders

agreement

agreement /ə|!rimənt/ noun a

spo-ken or written contract between people orgroups which explains how they will act

쑗 a written agreement 쑗 an unwritten or verbal agreement 쑗 to draw up or to draft

an agreement 쑗 to break an agreement 쑗

to sign an agreement 쑗 to reach an ment or to come to an agreement on something 쑗 a collective wage agreement

agree-‘…after three days of tough negotiationsthe company has reached agreement with

its 1,200 unionized workers’ [Toronto

agriculture /!rkltʃə/ noun use of

land for growing crops or raising animals,

etc 쑗 Agriculture is still an important part of the nation’s economy.

ahead

ahead /ə|hed/ adverb in front of, better than 쑗 We are already ahead of our sales forecast 쑗 The company has a lot of work ahead of it if it wants to increase its market share.

aim

aim /em/ noun something which you try

to do 쑗 One of our aims is to increase the quality of our products 왍 the company has achieved all its aims the company

has done all the things it had hoped to do

쐽 verb to try to do something 쑗 Each member of the sales team must aim to double their previous year’s sales 쑗 We aim to be No 1 in the market within two years.

air

air /eə/ noun a method of travelling or sending goods using aircraft 쑗 to send a letter or a shipment by air 쐽 verb 왍 to air

a grievance to talk about or discuss a

grievance 쑗 The management committee

is useful because it allows the workers’ representatives to air their grievances.

Trang 20

air carrier /eə kriə/ noun a company

which sends cargo or passengers by air

air forwarding

air forwarding /eə fɔwədŋ/ noun

the process of arranging for goods to be

shipped by air

air freight

air freight /eə fret/ noun the

transpor-tation of goods in aircraft, or goods sent

by air 쑗 to send a shipment by air freight

쑗 Air freight tariffs are rising.

airfreight

airfreight /eəfret/ verb to send goods

by air 쑗 to airfreight a consignment to

Mexico 쑗 We airfreighted the shipment

because our agent ran out of stock.

airline

airline /eəlan/ noun a company which

carries passengers or cargo by air

airmail

airmail /eəmel/ noun a postal service

which sends letters or parcels by air 쑗 to

send a package by airmail 쑗 Airmail

charges have risen by 15% 쐽 verb to

send letters or parcels by air 쑗 We

air-mailed the document to New York.

airmail envelope

airmail envelope /eəmel

envələυp/ noun a very light envelope for

sending airmail letters

airmail letter

airmail letter /eəmel letə/ noun a

letter sent by air

airmail sticker

airmail sticker /eə|mel stkə/ noun

a blue sticker with the words ‘air mail’,

which can be stuck on an envelope or

par-cel to show that it is being sent by air

airmail transfer

airmail transfer /eəmel trnsf&/

noun an act of sending money from one

bank to another by airmail

airport bus

airport bus /eə|pɔt bs/ noun a bus

which takes passengers to and from an

airport

airport security

airport security /eə|pɔt s|kjυərti/

noun actions taken to protect aircraft and

passengers against attack

airport tax

airport tax /eəpɔt tks/ noun a tax

added to the price of an air ticket to cover

the cost of running an airport

airport terminal

airport terminal /eə|pɔt

t&mn(ə)l/ noun the main building at an

airport where passengers arrive and

de-part

air terminal

air terminal /eə t&mn(ə)l/ noun a

building in a town where passengers meet

to be taken by bus to an airport outside the

town

all

all /ɔl/ adjective, pronoun everything or

everyone 쑗 All (of) the managers

attend-ed the meeting 쑗 A salesman should know the prices of all the products he is selling.

all-in

all-in /ɔl n/ adjective including thing 쑗 The fee payable is £150 all-in.

every-all-in policy

all-in policy /ɔl n pɒlsi/ noun an

insurance policy which covers all risks

all-in rate

all-in rate /ɔl n ret/ noun 1 a price

which covers all the costs connected with

a purchase, such as delivery, tax and surance, as well as the cost of the goods

in-themselves 2 a wage which includes all

extra payments such as bonuses and meritpay

allocate

allocate /ləket/ verb 1 to provide a

particular amount from a total sum of

money for a particular purpose 쑗 We cate 10% of revenue to publicity 쑗

allo-$2,500 was allocated to office furniture.

2 to divide something in various ways

and share it out 쑗 How are we going to locate the available office space?

al-allocation

allocation /lə|keʃ(ə)n/ noun the

process of providing sums of money forparticular purposes, or a sum provided for

a purpose 쑗 the allocation of funds to a project

allotment /ə|lɒtmənt/ noun 1 the

process of sharing out something, cially money between various depart-

espe-ments, projects or people 쑗 The allotment

of funds to each project is the

responsibil-ity of the finance director 2. the act ofgiving shares in a new company to people

who have applied for them 쑗 share ment 쑗 payment in full on allotment

allot-all-out strike

all-out strike /ɔl aυt strak/ noun a

complete strike by all employees

allow

allow /ə|laυ/ verb 1 to say that someone

can do something 쑗 Junior members of staff are not allowed to use the chairman’s lift 쑗 The company allows all members of staff to take six days’ holiday

at Christmas 2. to give 쑗 to allow 5%

discount to members of staff 3. to agree to

or accept legally 쑗 to allow a claim or an appeal

allow for phrasal verb 1 to give a

dis-count for something, or to add an extra

sum to cover something 쑗 to allow for money paid in advance 쑗 Add on an extra 10% to allow for postage and pack-

Trang 21

allowable 14

ing 왍 delivery is not allowed for

delivery charges are not included 2 to

include something in your calculations

왍 allow 28 days for delivery calculate

that delivery will take up to 28 days

allowable

allowable /ə|laυəb(ə)l/ adjective

legal-ly accepted Opposite disallowable

allowable expenses

allowable expenses /ə|laυəb(ə)l k|

spensz/ plural noun business expenses

which can be claimed against tax

allowance

allowance /ə|laυəns/ noun 1 money

which is given for a special reason 쑗 a

travel allowance or a travelling

allow-ance 2. a part of an income which is not

taxed 쑗 allowances against tax or tax

al-lowances 쑗 personal allowances 3

mon-ey removed in the form of a discount 쑗 an

allowance for depreciation 쑗 an

allow-ance for exchange loss

‘…the compensation plan includes base,

incentive and car allowance totalling

$50,000+’ [Globe and Mail (Toronto)]

allowed time

allowed time /ə|laυd tam/ noun paid

time which the management agrees an

employee can spend on rest, cleaning or

meals, not working

all-risks policy

all-risks policy /ɔl rsks pɒlsi/

noun an insurance policy which covers

risks of any kind, with no exclusions

all-time

all-time /ɔl tam/ adjective 왍 all-time

high, all-time low highest or lowest point

ever reached 쑗 Sales have fallen from

their all-time high of last year.

‘…shares closed at an all-time high

yester-day as expectations grew of lower interest

rates’ [Times]

alphabetical order

alphabetical order /lfəbetk(ə)l

ɔdə/ noun the arrangement of records

such as files and index cards in the order

of the letters of the alphabet

alter

alter /ɔltə/ verb to change 쑗 to alter the

terms of a contract

alteration

alteration /ɔltə|reʃ(ə)n/ noun a

change which has been made 쑗 He made

some alterations to the terms of a

con-tract 쑗 The agreement was signed

with-out any alterations.

alternate director

alternate director /ɒl|t&nt da|

rektə/ noun a person nominated by a

di-rector to attend meetings in his place

alternative

alternative /ɔl|t&nətv/ noun a thing

which can be done instead of another 쑗

What is the alternative to firing half the

staff? 왍 we have no alternative there is

nothing else we can do 쐽 adjective other,

which can take the place of something 왍

to find someone alternative ment to find someone another job

employ-altogether

altogether /ɔltə|!eðə/ adverb

putting everything together 쑗 The staff of the three companies in the group come to 2,500 altogether 쑗 The company lost

£2m last year and £4m this year, making

£6m altogether for the two years.

a.m.

a.m. /e em/ adverb in the morning, fore 12 midday 쑗 The flight leaves at 9.20 a.m 쑗 Telephone calls before 6 a.m are charged at the cheap rate (NOTE: The US

be-spelling is A.M.)

amalgamate

amalgamate /ə|ml!əmet/ verb to join together with another group 쑗 The amalgamated group includes six companies.

ambition

ambition /m|bʃ(ə)n/ noun what

someone wants to do or achieve in their

life 쑗 We insist that our sales tives have plenty of ambition 쑗 Her ambition is to become the senior partner in the firm.

representa-ambitious

ambitious /m|bʃəs/ adjective full of

ambition, wanting to do or achieve

some-thing 쑗 He is ambitious, but not very petent.

com-amend

amend /ə|mend/ verb to change and make more correct or acceptable 쑗 Please amend your copy of the contract accord- ingly.

amendment

amendment /ə|mendmənt/ noun a change to a document 쑗 to propose an amendment to the constitution 쑗 to make amendments to a contract

American Depositary Receipt

American Depositary Receipt /ə|

merkən d|pɒztri r|sit/ noun a

doc-ument issued by an American bank to UScitizens, making them unregistered share-holders of companies in foreign coun-tries The document allows them to re-ceive dividends from their investments,and ADRs can themselves be bought or

sold Abbreviation ADR

COMMENT: Buying and selling ADRs iseasier for American investors than buy-ing or selling the actual shares them-selves, as it avoids stamp duty and can

be carried out in dollars without incurringexchange costs

American Stock Exchange

American Stock Exchange /ə|

merkən stɒk ks|tʃend$/ noun the

smaller of the two Stock Exchanges based

in New York (the other is the New YorkStock Exchange or NYSE) Abbreviation

Trang 22

15 annually

Amex (NOTE: Also called Curb

Ex-change or Little Board, as opposed to

the Big Board, or NYSE.)

amortisable /mɔ|tazəb(ə)l/

ad-jective being possible to amortise 쑗 The

capital cost is amortisable over a period

of ten years.

amortisation

amortisation /ə|mɔta|zeʃ(ə)n/,

amortising noun an act of amortising 쑗

amortisation of a debt

amortise

amortise /ə|mɔtaz/, amortize verb

1 to repay a loan by regular payments,

most of which pay off the interest on the

loan at first, and then reduce the principal

as the repayment period progresses 쑗 The

capital cost is amortised over five years.

2 to depreciate or to write down the

cap-ital value of an asset over a period of time

in a company’s accounts

amount

amount /ə|maυnt/ noun a quantity of

money 쑗 A small amount has been

de-ducted to cover our costs 쑗 A large

amount is still owing 쑗 What is the

amount to be written off? 쐽 verb 왍 to

amount to to make a total of 쑗 Their

debts amount to over £1m.

amount to phrasal verb to make a total

of 쑗 Their debts amount to over £1m.

AMT

AMT abbr advanced manufacturing

tech-nology

analyse

analyse /nəlaz/, analyze verb to

ex-amine someone or something in detail 쑗

to analyse a statement of account 쑗 to

an-alyse the market potential

analysis

analysis /ə|nləss/ noun a detailed

examination and report 쑗 a job analysis 쑗

market analysis 쑗 Her job is to produce a

regular sales analysis (NOTE: The plural

is analyses.)

analyst

analyst /nəlst/ noun a person who

analyses 쑗 a market analyst 쑗 a systems

announce /ə|naυns/ verb to tell

some-thing to the public 쑗 to announce the first

year’s trading results 쑗 The director has

announced a programme of investment.

announcement

announcement /ə|naυnsmənt/ noun

an act of telling something in public 쑗 the

announcement of a cutback in

expendi-ture 쑗 the announcement of the ment of a new managing director 쑗 The managing director made an announcement to the staff.

appoint-annual

annual /njuəl/ adjective for one year

쑗 an annual statement of income 쑗 They have six weeks’ annual leave 쑗 The company has an annual growth of 5% 쑗 We get an annual bonus 왍 on an annual ba-

sis each year 쑗 The figures are revised on

an annual basis.

‘…real wages have risen at an annual rate

of only 1% in the last two years’

[Sunday Times]

‘…the remuneration package will include

an attractive salary, profit sharing and acompany car together with four weeks’ an-

nual holiday’ [Times]

annual accounts

annual accounts /njuəl ə|kaυnts/

plural noun the accounts prepared at the

end of a financial year 쑗 The annual counts have been sent to the shareholders.

ac-annual depreciation

annual depreciation /njuəl d|

priʃi|eʃ(ə)n/ noun a reduction in the

book value of an asset at a particular rateper year 쒁 straight line depreciation

Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meeting /njuəl

d$en(ə)rəl mitŋ/ noun an annual

meeting of all shareholders of a company,when the company’s financial situation ispresented by and discussed with the di-rectors, when the accounts for the pastyear are approved and when dividends are

declared and audited Abbreviation AGM

(NOTE: The US term is annual meeting

or annual stockholders’ meeting.)

annual income

annual income /njuəl nkm/

noun money received during a calendaryear

annualised

annualised /njuəlazd/,

annual-ized adjective shown on an annual basis

‘…he believes this may have caused theeconomy to grow at an annualized rate ofalmost 5 per cent in the final quarter of last

year’ [Investors Chronicle]

annualised percentage rate

annualised percentage rate

/njuəlazd pə|sentd$ ret/ noun a

yearly percentage rate, calculated by tiplying the monthly rate by twelve Ab-

mul-breviation APR (NOTE: The annualisedpercentage rate is not as accurate asthe Annual Percentage Rate (APR),which includes fees and other charges.)

annually

annually /njuəli/ adverb each year 쑗

The figures are updated annually.

Trang 23

Annual Percentage Rate 16

Annual Percentage Rate

Annual Percentage Rate /njuəl

pə|sentd$ ret/ noun a rate of interest

(such as on a hire-purchase agreement)

shown on an annual compound basis, and

including fees and charges Abbreviation

APR

annual report

annual report /njuəl r|pɔt/ noun

a report of a company’s financial situation

at the end of a year, sent to all the

share-holders

annual return

annual return /njuəl r|t&n/ noun

an official report which a registered

com-pany has to make each year to the

Regis-trar of Companies

annuitant

annuitant /ə|njutənt/ noun a person

who receives an annuity

annuity

annuity /ə|njuti/ noun money paid

each year to a retired person, usually in

return for a lump-sum payment The

val-ue of the annuity depends on how long the

person lives, as it usually cannot be

passed on to another person Annuities

are fixed payments, and lose their value

with inflation, whereas a pension can be

index-linked 쑗 to buy or to take out an

annuity 쑗 She has a government annuity

or an annuity from the government.

COMMENT: When a person retires, he or

she is required by law to purchase a

‘compulsory purchase annuity’ with the

funds accumulated in his or her pension

fund This provides a taxable income for

the rest of his or her life, but usually it is

a fixed income which does not change

with inflation

annuity for life

annuity for life /ə|njuti fə laf/

noun annual payments made to someone

as long as they are alive

annul

annul /ə|nl/ verb to cancel or to stop

something being legal 쑗 The contract was

annulled by the court (NOTE: annulling

– annulled)

annulment

annulment /ə|nlmənt/ noun the act

of cancelling 쑗 the annulment of a

con-tract

answer

answer /ɑnsə/ noun a reply, a letter or

conversation coming after someone has

written or spoken 쑗 my letter got no

an-swer or there was no anan-swer to my letter

쑗 I am writing in answer to your letter of

October 6th 쑗 I tried to phone his office

but there was no answer 쐽 verb to speak

or write after someone has spoken or

writ-ten to you 왍 to answer a letter to write a

letter in reply to a letter which you have

received 왍 to answer the telephone to

lift the telephone when it rings and listen

to what the caller is saying

answering service

answering service /ɑns(ə)rŋ

s&vs/ noun an office which answers the

telephone and takes messages for one or for a company

some-antedate

antedate /nt|det/ verb to put an earlier date on a document 쑗 The invoice was antedated to January 1st.

anti-anti- /nti/ prefix against

anti-dumping

anti-dumping /nti dmpŋ/

adjec-tive intended to stop surplus goods beingsold in foreign markets at a price that islower than their marginal cost

anti-dumping duty

anti-dumping duty /nti dmpŋ/

noun same as countervailing duty

anti-inflationary

anti-inflationary /nti n|

fleʃ(ə)n(ə)ri/ adjective restricting or trying to restrict inflation 쑗 anti-inflationary measures

anti-inflationary measure

anti-inflationary measure /nti n|

fleʃ(ə)n(ə)ri me$ə/ noun a measure

taken to reduce inflation

anti-site

anti-site /nti sat/ noun a website

de-voted to attacking a particular company ororganisation An anti-site often imitatesthe target organisation’s own site and isusually set up by a customer who has acomplaint against the organisation that he

or she has been unable to express on theorganisation’s own site Also known as

hate site

anti-trust

anti-trust /nti trst/ adjective

at-tacking monopolies and encouraging

competition 쑗 anti-trust measures

any other business

any other business /eni ðə

bzns/ noun an item at the end of an

agenda, where any matter can be raised

envələυp/ noun an envelope with a hole

in it so that the address on the letter insidecan be seen

appeal /ə|pil/ noun 1 the fact of being

attractive 2 the act of asking a law court

or a government department to change its

decision 쑗 He lost his appeal for damages against the company 왍 she won her case

on appeal her case was lost in the first

court, but the appeal court said that she

Trang 24

17 approach

was right 쐽 verb 1 to attract 쑗 The idea

of working in Australia for six months

ap-pealed to her 2. to ask a law court or a

government department or to alter its

de-cision 쑗 The union appealed against the

decision of the tribunal (NOTE: You

ap-peal to a court or a person against a

de-cision.)

appear

appear /ə|pə/ verb to seem 쑗 The

com-pany appeared to be doing well 쑗 The

managing director appears to be in

con-trol.

appendix

appendix /ə|pendks/ noun 1

addi-tional sheets at the back of a contract 2.

additional pages at the back of a book

applicant

applicant /plkənt/ noun a person

who applies for something 쑗 an applicant

for a job or a job applicant 쑗 an applicant

to an industrial tribunal 쑗 There were

thousands of applicants for shares in the

new company.

application

application /pl|keʃ(ə)n/ noun 1.

the act of asking for something, usually in

writing, or a document in which someone

asks for something, e.g a job 쑗 shares

payable on application 쑗 She sent off six

applications for job or six job

applica-tions 2. effort or diligence 쑗 She has

shown great application in her work on

the project.

application form

application form /pl|keʃ(ə)n

fɔm/ noun a form to be filled in when

applying for a new issue of shares or for a

job

apply

apply /ə|pla/ verb 1 to ask for

some-thing, usually in writing 쑗 to apply in

writing 쑗 to apply in person 쑗 The more

ambitious of the employees will apply for

the management trainee programme 쑗

About fifty people have applied for the

job, but there is only one vacancy 2 to

af-fect or to relate to 쑗 This clause applies

only to deals outside the EU (NOTE: [all

senses] applies – applying – applied)

appoint

appoint /ə|pɔnt/ verb to choose

some-one for a job 쑗 We have appointed a new

distribution manager 쑗 They’ve

appoint-ed Janet Smith (to the post of) manager.

(NOTE: You appoint a person to a job.)

appointee

appointee /əpɔn|ti/ noun a person

who is appointed to a job

appointment

appointment /ə|pɔntmənt/ noun 1.

an arrangement to meet 쑗 to make or to fix

an appointment with someone for two

o’clock 쑗 He was late for his

appoint-ment 쑗 She had to cancel her

appoint-ment 2. the act of being appointed to ajob, or of appointing someone to a job 왍

on his appointment as manager when

he was made manager 3 a job

appointments book

appointments book /ə|pɔntmənts

bυk/ noun a desk diary in which

appoint-ments are noted

appointments vacant

appointments vacant /ə|

pɔntmənts vekənt/ noun a list (in a

newspaper) of jobs which are available

apportion

apportion /ə|pɔʃ(ə)n/ verb to share

out something, e.g costs, funds or blame

쑗 Costs are apportioned according to projected revenue.

apportionment

apportionment /ə|pɔʃ(ə)nmənt/

noun the sharing out of costs

appraisal

appraisal /ə|prez(ə)l/ noun a

calcula-tion of the value of someone or something

‘…we are now reaching a stage in industryand commerce where appraisals are be-coming part of the management culture.Most managers now take it for granted thatthey will appraise and be appraised’

[Personnel Management]

appraise

appraise /ə|prez/ verb to assess or to

calculate the value of something or one

some-appraisee

appraisee /əpre|zi/ noun an

employ-ee who is being appraised by his or hermanager in an appraisal interview

appreciation /ə|priʃi|eʃ(ə)n/ noun

1 an increase in value Also called tal appreciation 2 the act of valuing

capi-something highly 쑗 She was given a pay rise in appreciation of her excellent work.

apprentice

apprentice /ə|prents/ noun a young

person who works under contract for a riod in order to be trained in a skill 쐽 verb

pe-왍 to be apprenticed to someone to work

with a skilled worker to learn from them

appro /prəυ/ noun same as approval

(informal) 왍 to buy something on appro

to buy something which you will only payfor if it is satisfactory

approach

approach /ə|prəυtʃ/ noun an act of

getting in touch with someone with a

pro-posal 쑗 The company made an approach

Trang 25

appropriate 18

to the supermarket chain 쑗 The board

turned down all approaches on the

sub-ject of mergers 쑗 We have had an

ap-proach from a Japanese company to buy

our car division 쑗 She has had an

ap-proach from a firm of headhunters 쐽 verb

to get in touch with someone with a

pro-posal 쑗 He approached the bank with a

request for a loan 쑗 The company was

approached by an American publisher

with the suggestion of a merger 쑗 We

have been approached several times but

have turned down all offers 쑗 She was

approached by a headhunter with the

of-fer of a job.

appropriate

appropriate adjective /ə|prəυpriət/

suitable 쑗 I leave it to you to take

appro-priate action 쐽 verb /ə|prəυpriet/ to

put a sum of money aside for a special

purpose 쑗 to appropriate a sum of money

for a capital project

appropriation

appropriation /ə|prəυpri|eʃ(ə)n/

noun the act of putting money aside for a

special purpose 쑗 appropriation of funds

to the reserve

appropriation account

appropriation account /ə|prəυpri|

eʃ(ə)n ə|kaυnt/ noun the part of a

prof-it and loss account which shows how the

profit has been dealt with, e.g., how much

has been given to the shareholders as

div-idends and how much is being put into the

reserves

approval

approval /ə|pruv(ə)l/ noun 1 the act

of saying or thinking that something is

good 쑗 to submit a budget for approval 2.

왍 on approval in order to be able to use

something for a period of time and check

that it is satisfactory before paying for it 쑗

to buy a photocopier on approval

approve

approve /ə|pruv/ verb 1 왍 to approve

of something to think something is good

쑗 The chairman approves of the new

com-pany letter heading 쑗 The sales staff do

not approve of interference from the

ac-counts division 2. to agree to something

officially 쑗 to approve the terms of a

con-tract 쑗 The proposal was approved by the

board.

approximate

approximate /ə|prɒksmət/ adjective

not exact, but almost correct 쑗 The sales

division has made an approximate

fore-cast of expenditure.

approximately

approximately /ə|prɒksmətli/

ad-verb not quite exactly, but close to the

fig-ure shown 쑗 Expenditure on marketing is

approximately 10% down on the previous quarter.

approximation

approximation /ə|prɒks|meʃ(ə)n/

noun a rough calculation 쑗 Each ment has been asked to provide an approximation of expenditure for next year.

depart-쑗 The final figure is only an tion.

aptitude test /pt|tjud test/ noun

a test to see if a candidate is suitable for a

certain type of work Compare ment test

attain-AR

AR abbr accounts receivable

arbitrage

arbitrage /ɑb|trɑ$/ noun the

busi-ness of making a profit from the ence in value of various assets, e.g byselling foreign currencies or commodities

differ-on differ-one market and buying differ-on another atalmost the same time to profit from differ-ent exchange rates, or by buying curren-cies forward and selling them forward at

a later date, to benefit from a difference inprices

arbitrage syndicate

arbitrage syndicate /ɑbtrɑ$

sndkət/ noun a group of people who

together raise the capital to invest in trage deals

arbi-arbitrageur

arbitrageur /ɑbtred$ə/, arbitrager

/ɑbtrɑ|$&/ noun a person whose

business is arbitrageCOMMENT: Arbitrageurs buy shares incompanies which are potential takeovertargets, either to force up the price of theshares before the takeover bid, or simply

as a position while waiting for the ver bid to take place They also sellshares in the company which is expect-

takeo-ed to make the takeover bid, since one ofthe consequences of a takeover bid isusually that the price of the target com-pany rises while that of the bidding com-pany falls Arbitrageurs may then sell theshares in the target company at a profit,either to one of the parties making thetakeover bid, or back to the company it-self

arbitrate

arbitrate /ɑbtret/ verb (of an

out-side party) to try to settle an industrialdispute by talking to representatives ofboth sides, who agree in advance to abide

by the arbitrator’s decision

arbitration

arbitration /ɑb|treʃ(ə)n/ noun the

settling of a dispute by an outside party

agreed on by both sides 쑗 to take a

Trang 26

dis-19 arrive

pute to arbitration or to go to arbitration

쑗 arbitration in an industrial dispute 쑗

The two sides decided to submit the

dis-pute to arbitration or to refer the question

to arbitration.

arbitration board

arbitration board /ɑb|treʃ(ə)n

bɔd/ noun a group which arbitrates

arbitrator

arbitrator /ɑbtretə/ noun a person

not concerned with a dispute who is

cho-sen by both sides to try to settle it 쑗 an

in-dustrial arbitrator 쑗 They refused to

ac-cept or they rejected the arbitrator’s

rul-ing.

Tiêu đề	Dictionary of Business
Tác giả	P.H. Collin, F. Collin, S.M.H. Collin
Trường học	A & C Black
Chuyên ngành	Business
Thể loại	dictionary
Năm xuất bản	2004
Thành phố	London

Định dạng
Số trang	481
Dung lượng	8,29 MB