These are all words for money spent by a government, an organization or a person. 以上各词均指政府、机构或个人的开支、支出、花费。

• costs the total amount of money that needs to be spent by a business 指成本：◆labour/production costs 人工/生产成本◆rising costs 正在上涨的成本
• spending the amount of money that is spent, especially by a government or an organization 尤指政府或机构的开支、支出、花销：◆public spending 公共开支◆More spending on health was promised. 已承诺增加医疗开支。
• expenditure (rather formal) an amount of money spent by a government, an organization or a person 指政府、机构或个人的开支、支出、花费：◆expenditure on education 教育支出
• expenses money that has to be spent by a person or an organization; money that you spend while you are working which your employer will pay back to you later 指个人或机构必需的开支、花费或报销的费用：◆legal expenses 律师费◆travel expenses 差旅费
• overhead(s) the regular costs of running a business or an organization, such as rent, electricity and wages 指经费、运营费用、经常性开支：◆High overheads mean small profit margins. 经费开销大意味着利润低。
• outlay the money that you have to spend in order to start a new business or project, or in order to save yourself money or time later 指启动新业务或项目所必要的开支、费用或为了节省后期投入而使用的经费：◆The best equipment is costly but is well worth the outlay. 最好的设备花费大，但这种开支很值得。

Patterns

• spending/expenditure/outlay on sth
• high/low costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/overheads
• total costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/overheads/outlay
• capital costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/outlay
• household costs/spending/expenditure/expenses
• government/public/education/health costs/spending/expenditure
• to increase/reduce costs/spending/expenditure/expenses/overheads/the outlay