apportionment

/əˈpɔrʃənmənt/

Other forms: apportionments

Apportionment is deciding how to divide things up and distribute them. While the apportionment of the candy from a piñata can be chaotic, milk apportionment in a school cafeteria is much more orderly.

The apportionment of tax dollars may be contentious in your town if some people object to the amount of spending that goes to the yearly fireworks display. This controversy may result in the apportionment of blame on a few specific city council members. Apportionment is also used for the number of congressional representatives each state gets, based on population: "Maine might lose a seat in the House of Representatives during the next apportionment."

Definitions of apportionment

1. noun

   the act of distributing by allotting or apportioning; distribution according to a plan
   “the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives is based on the relative population of each state”

   synonyms: allocation, allotment, apportioning, assignation, parceling, parcelling

   types:

   grant, subsidisation, subsidization

   the act of providing a subsidy

   reallocation, reallotment, reapportionment

   a new apportionment (especially a new apportionment of congressional seats in the United States on the basis of census results)

   deal

   the act of apportioning or distributing something

   rationing

   the act of rationing

   parcel, portion, share

   the allotment of some amount by dividing something

   award, awarding

   a grant made by a law court

   block grant

   a grant of federal money to state and local governments to support social welfare programs

   grant-in-aid

   a grant from a central government to a local government

   reshuffle

   a redistribution of something

   new deal

   a reapportioning of something

   type of:

   distribution

   the act of distributing or spreading or apportioning