installment

Meanings

1. One of a series of parts, whether equal or unequal to the other parts of the series, of a given entity or a given process, which part presents or is presented at a particular scheduled interval.
2. Any of a series of portions of a debt or sum of money, which portions may or may not be equal in amount (depending in part on whether the interest rate is fixed or variable), and payment of which takes place at regular intervals toward satisfaction of the total. Payments are generally mensual, quarterly, triannual, biannual, or annual.
3. A part of a published or broadcast serial.

1. The act of installing; installation.
2. The seat in which one is placed.

Etymology

A 1732 alteration of estallment, from Anglo-Norman estaler (“fix payments”), from Old French estal (“fixed position”), from Old High German stal (“stall", "standing place”) The sense of "part of a whole produced in advance of the rest" is from 1823.