Word.ws English Dictionary

arrears

/əˈɹɪə(ɹ)z/

arrears is the plural of arrear.

Meaning of arrear

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.
  2. Unpaid debt.
    • fall into arrears
  3. That which is in the rear or behind.

See all 5 meanings of arrear

Noun

arrears (uncountable)

  1. The state of having outstanding debt or liabilities.
    • annuities in arrears
    • Mr Hay had been irregular with his rent at the best, and when he disappeared he was a week in arrears.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

Words that rhyme with arrears

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about arrears

What does arrears mean?
Arrears means the state of having outstanding debt or liabilities.
What is arrears the plural of?
Arrears is the plural of arrear.
What part of speech is arrears?
Arrears is a noun.
How do you pronounce arrears?
Arrears is pronounced /əˈɹɪə(ɹ)z/.

Words near arrears in the dictionary

  1. Arreaga
  2. Arreagas
  3. arrear
  4. arrearage
  5. arrearages
  6. arrears
  7. arreca
  8. arrecas
  9. arrect
  10. arrectaries
  11. arrectary

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arrears (page history and authors); arrear (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-arrears.wav.

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