Amortización and its English counterpart “amortization” (or “amortizing”) have at least three distinct meanings. The first may refer to gradually extinguishing a debt, such as a loan, by making periodic payments: amortización de un préstamo (“amortizing a loan;” “amortization of a loan”). In this sense, amortización may be rendered simply as “repayment.” In the context of securities law, when referring to the repayment of a fixed-income security such as a treasury note or bond on or before its maturity date, the term used is “redemption.” Thus amortización de bonos denotes “redeeming bonds” or “bond redemption.

”Amortización has a different menaing in accounting contexts, decribing the apportionment of the initial cost of an asset over the asset’s useful life. In US usage a distinction is generally made between intangible assets, which are amortized, and tangible assets, which are depreciated. Thus, for example, amortización de la patente is rendered as “amortization of the patent,” while amortización de la maquinaria is expressed as “depreciation of the machinery.”