Word.ws English Dictionary

arrear

/əˈɹɪə/US/əˈɹɪɹ/

arrear adverb: towards the rear, backwards.

Adverb

arrear (comparative more arrear, superlative most arrear)

  1. (obsolete) Towards the rear, backwards.
    • She, (Ladie) having well before approoved / The feends to be too cruell and severe, / Observ'd th' appointed way, as her behooved, / Ne ever did her ey-sight turne arere [...].1591, Edmund Spenser, Virgil's Gnat, ll. 465-8
  2. (obsolete) Behind time; overdue.
    • In case the annuity should be arrear for sixty days being lawfully demanded, then the trustee might enter upon the premises assigned [...].1803, Edward Hyde East, Reports of cases Argued and determined in the Court of King's Bench, volume 3, London, published 1814, page 559

Noun

arrear (plural arrears)

  1. Work to be done, obligation.
    • November 4, 1866, James David Forbes, letter to E. C. Batten
      I have a large arrear of letters to write.
    • My own work, with its manifold arrears, took me all day to clear off.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC
  2. Unpaid debt.
    • fall into arrears
    • I know the debt is in arrears / The dog has not been fed in years / It's even worse than it appears, but / It's alright1987, Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey”, in In the Dark
  3. That which is in the rear or behind.

arrear meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Punjabi

arrear in Tamil

நிலுவை, ஊர்வல வரிசையின் பின்பகுதி

arrear in Malayalam

arrear
കുടിശ്ശിക kuṭiśśika

arrear in Punjabi

unpaid debt
ਬਾਕੀ bākī

Forms of arrear

Adverb
comparativemore arrear
superlativemost arrear
Noun
pluralarrears

Origin of arrear

From Middle English arere, from Old French arere, from Vulgar Latin *ad retro (literally “to the rear”).

Words formed from arrear

Words that rhyme with arrear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about arrear

What does arrear mean?
Arrear means towards the rear, backwards.
What is arrear in Tamil?
Arrear in Tamil is நிலுவை, ஊர்வல வரிசையின் பின்பகுதி. See Arrear meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is arrear?
Arrear can be an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce arrear?
Arrear is pronounced /əˈɹɪə/ (UK).

Words near arrear in the dictionary

  1. arread
  2. arreading
  3. arreads
  4. Arreaga
  5. Arreagas
  6. arrear
  7. arrearage
  8. arrearages
  9. arrears
  10. arreca
  11. arrecas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arrear (page history and authors); arrear (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കുടിശ്ശിക (Malayalam) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-arrear.wav.

Cite this entry: “arrear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arrear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.