Definition of TRANCHE

Finance and Tranche

In French, tranche means "slice." Cutting deeper into the word's etymology, we find the Old French word trancer, meaning "to cut." Tranche emerged in the English language in the late 19th century to describe financial appropriations. Today, it is often used specifically of an issue of bonds that is differentiated from other issues by such factors as maturity or rate of return. Another use of the French word tranche is in the French phrase une tranche de vie, meaning "a cross section of life." That phrase was coined by the dramatist Jean Jullien (1854-1919), who advocated naturalism in the theater.

Examples of tranche in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The first tranche on August 7 targeted Iran’s ability to purchase or acquire US dollar banknotes, trade in gold and precious metals, and make transactions related to the Iranian rial, the country’s currency. — Alex Ward, Vox, "The US will impose new sanctions on Iran next week," 2 Nov. 2018 More tranches of shares are expected to be sold over the next few years. — The Economist, "Business this week," 7 June 2018 The administration has also signaled its intention to apply tariffs to imports of as much as $150 billion in goods from China, and the first tranche of those tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports could be applied as early as June 15. — William Mauldin, WSJ, "Trump’s Trade Policies Threaten Millions of Jobs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Says," 31 May 2018 But the last two tranches of $5 million, investigators say, were never approved by the union’s board of directors. — Alan Feuer, New York Times, "Tracking Graft, From the Bootlegger to the Mayor," 27 Apr. 2018 The State Department hasn’t decided what to do about the second tranche due later this year. — Nick Wadhams, Bloomberg.com, "U.S. Slashes Aid to Palestinians Through UN to $60 Million," 16 Jan. 2018 Angola came to market on Wednesday morning offering a 30-year Eurobond with initial price talk of around 9.625 percent, along with a 10-year tranche at 8.5 percent. — Bloomberg.com, "On Sale: This Year’s Juiciest Dollar Bond, Paying Close to 10%," 2 May 2018 President Donald Trump is threatening to impose higher tariffs on $450bn of imports from China, with the first tranche, on $34bn of Chinese goods, due to take effect on July 6th. — The Economist, "Asia is at last waking up to the threat of a trade war," 28 June 2018 The compensation plan consists of 20.3 million stock option awards—each broken up into 12 tranches of 1.69 million shares, or 1% of Tesla’s outstanding shares. — Kirsten Korosec, Fortune, "What Elon Musk's Compensation Deal Means for Tesla Motors," 22 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tranche.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.