co-financing

IPA/ˌkəʊˈfaɪ.næns/
IPA/ˌkoʊˈfaɪ.næns/

co-financing — verb

  • co-financingpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • co-financings3rd person singular
  • co-financinging-ing form
  • co-financingedpast simple

1. to pay for a project, film, or similar activity jointly with at least one outsid

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to pay for a project, film, or similar activity jointly with at least one outside partner, so that no single party covers the whole cost.

Example

The World Bank agreed to co-finance the new water-treatment plant with the Kenyan government.

co-finance + [project] + with + [partner]

Sana's documentary about street musicians was co-financed by two small Swedish studios.

passive: be co-financed by [parties]

Common collocations
  • co-finance a project
  • co-finance a film
  • co-finance with [partner]
  • be co-financed by
  • jointly co-finance
Synonyms
  • jointly fund

    everyday paraphrase; less formal than co-finance

  • co-fund

    near-synonym, slightly broader — covers smaller or non-profit projects

  • syndicate

    specialist banking term for several lenders sharing one loan

Antonyms
  • sole-fund

    rare formation; means one party covers the whole cost

  • self-finance

    the project's owner pays for it without outside partners

Grammar Patterns

co-finance + noun (project/film/study)

co-finance + noun + with + party

Usage Note

Subject is usually an institution (bank, government, studio, foundation) rather than an individual. Frequently appears in passive voice when the focus is on the project being funded.

Common Mistakes

My uncle co-financed my new car.
My uncle helped pay for my new car.
co-finance is used for large institutional projects, not personal purchases.
The studio co-financed for the film.
The studio co-financed the film.
co-finance is transitive; the project is a direct object, not introduced by 'for'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four terms describe shared funding, but each fits a different setting. Co-finance is the most formal and is the standard label in development-bank and film-industry contracts; it implies a written agreement and a defined share of the total cost. Co-fund overlaps strongly with co-finance but extends easily to non-profit and academic settings, such as research grants split between a university and a foundation. Jointly fund is the everyday paraphrase used in news writing when the technical term would feel heavy. Syndicate is narrower: it belongs to banking, where several lenders combine to share one large loan to a single borrower, and a learner should not use it of film or aid projects.

co-financeco-fundjointly fundsyndicate ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • co-financing agreement
  • co-financing arrangement
  • co-financing partner

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Co-financing combines the Latin prefix co- ('together with') and the noun finance, which entered English through Old French finance ('payment, ending'), itself from finer ('to end, settle'). The compound spread in the late twentieth century with the growth of international aid and large-budget film production, where projects routinely needed funding from several institutional partners.

First known use

1928

1928, in the meaning defined above