the money that a court orders somebody to pay regularly to their former wife, husband or partner when the marriage or civil union is ended （离婚后一方给另一方的）生活费，扶养费 He has to pay alimony to his ex-wife. 他必须向前妻支付赡养费。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryAlimony is used before these nouns:- payment
Word Originearly 17th cent. (in the sense ‘nourishment, means of subsistence’): from Latin alimonia ‘nutriment’, meaning nourishment, from alere ‘nourish’.