These two confusing words have similar meanings, but are used in different ways.
Disburse means “to give something to multiple recipients,” usually in an official way, such as when giving financial aid to students. Disburse most often refers to giving out money:
The office of financial aid disburses funds to students once per month.
Disperse, on the other hand, can mean “to spread out and go away,” intransitively (without an object):
After the concert, the crowd dispersed to their homes.
But it can also be used transitively (with an object):
The police dispersed the crowd from the front of the capitol building.
And, disperse can also be used in the same way as disburse:
The financial aid will be dispersed/disbursed to students through their banks.
However, disburse cannot be used intransitively (without an object).
More Examples of How to Use "Disburse" in a Sentence
- The CEO informed the company that bonuses would not be disbursed until after the holidays.
- The employees were paid half of their bonuses at the beginning of the month; the remainder of the payments were disbursed in equal installments over the following three months.
- The treasury department has yet to disburse of the stimulus payments.
- The money was disbursed to all of the shareholders.
- According to records, the relief money was disbursed to the school districts, but none of it went toward instructional improvement.
- All disbursements were handled expertly by the head of the finance department.
More Examples of How to Use "Disperse" in a Sentence
- When the police arrived, the protesters had already dispersed.
- We were trying to disperse the crowd, so we could safely make our way through.
- Once we got back to the classroom, we were instructed to disperse into groups of four and start working on the project.
- A dispersal order is given when it is no longer safe for a group of people to be gathered in a crowd.
- The clouds finally dispersed, and the sun came out.
- After a few minutes, the teacher came back into the room and told us to disperse again, but this time into groups of six.
- The firefighters rushed to the scene, dispersing the crowd that had gathered to watch.