Disburse and disperse are not quite homophones (disburse has a b sound, and disperse a p), but these verbs are often confused with one another. This happens partly because they sound similar, but it’s also because they both have meanings relating to distribution. However, they differ in how and what they distribute, and there is no crossover in their definitions.
Disburse usage
Disburse—whose root comes from the Old French borse, meaning purse—means to pay out or to expend funds. Without exception, it always relates to money. For example:
The Education Department will handle loan applications and disburse money to the school’s financial aid office. [Chicago Tribune]
The fund expects to start lending money in the next couple of months and disburse most of the $200 million in 12 months . . . [BusinessWeek]
And here’s an example of disburse mistakenly used in place of disperse:
Cleanup crews are spraying something similar to dish-washing soap on the oil slick, trying to disburse it. [News 4 Jacksonville]
The noun form of disburse is disbursement, not disbursal.
Disperse usage
Disperse means to scatter or to distribute. It is often mistakenly used when disburse is meant—for example:
As Greece waits for its euro-region partners to disperse funds, the European Union has announced no concrete plans to help other nations should aid be needed. [BusinessWeek]
Following an application process, the local boards decide how to disperse the money to local agencies. [Washington Post]
And here are examples of disperse used correctly:
Instead of a dark slick on the surface, it becomes tiny droplets that disperse into the water below. [McClatchy]
Biles said guardsmen used rifles fixed with bayonets to disperse the protesters. [Marcos Island Florida]
The noun form of disperse is dispersal, not dispersement.
