debt
/ˈdɛt/
debt noun: an action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
Noun
debt (countable and uncountable, plural debts)
- An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
- Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt / Of this proud king, who studies day and night / To answer all the debt he owes to you / Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.1589, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, act 1, scene 3
- This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 14, in The Scarlet Letter
- The state or condition of owing something to another.
- I am in your debt.
- We owe them a debt of gratitude for taking care of our pets.
- Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
- Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.1919, Upton Sinclair, chapter 15, in Jimmie Higgins
- Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their...2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
- An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due
debt meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
debt in Hindi
- money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another
- क़र्ज़ qarz, ऋण ŕṇ
debt in Tamil
- கடன்
debt in Marathi
- money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another
- कर्ज karja
debt in Urdu
- money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another
- قَرْض qarz, دَین dain
More languagesFewer languages
- debt in Bengali
- ঋণ rin, কর্জ korjo
- debt in Telugu
- అప్పు appu
- debt in Malayalam
- കടം kaṭaṁ, ഋണം r̥ṇaṁ, കടപ്പാട് kaṭappāṭŭ
- debt in Kannada
- ಋಣ ṛṇa
- debt in Gujarati
- રણ raṇ
- debt in Sanskrit
- ऋण ṛṇa
- debt in Assamese
- ধাৰ dhar, বাকী baki
- debt in Nepali
- कर्जा karjā, ऋण r̥ṇ
- debt in Pashto
- قرض qarz, دين dayn
- debt in Tagalog
- utang
- debt in Arabic
- دَيْن dayn, قَرْض qarḍ, قِرْض qirḍ
- debt in Malay
- hutang
- debt in Indonesian
- utang, berutang
- debt in Thai
- หนี้ nîi
- debt in Vietnamese
- nợ
- debt in Myanmar
- မြီ mri, ကြွေး krwe:
Examples of debt in a sentence
- I've got a new complaint / Forever in debt to your priceless advice1993, Kurt Cobain, “Heart-Shaped Box”, in In Utero, performed by Nirvana:
- Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
Forms of debt
| plural | debts |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | dette |
| alternative form (obsolete) | det |
Origin of debt
From Middle English dette, dett, borrowed from Old French dete (French dette), from Medieval Latin dēbita, from Latin dēbitum (“what is owed, a debt, a duty”), neuter of dēbitus, perfect passive participle of dēbeō (“to owe”), contraction of *dehibeō (“I have from”), from de (“from”) + habeō (“to have”). Doublet of debit. Displaced native Old English eofot. The unpronounced "b" in the modern English spelling is a Latinisation from the Latin etymon dēbitum.
Words formed from debt
- acquisition debt
- antidebt
- bad debt
- bonded debt
- book debt
- carbon debt
- collateralized debt obligation
- debt bondage
- debt burden
- debt ceiling
- debt collection
- debt collector
- debted
- debtee
- debt enforcement
- debt-equity ratio
- debt exchange
- debt-financed
- debt-for-nature
- debt-free
- debtholder
- debt instrument
- debt-laden
- debtless
- debtlike
- debt obligation
- debt of honor
- debt of honour
- debt of nature
- debt release
- debt relief
- debt-ridden
- debt slave
- debt slavery
- debt trap
- debt trap diplomacy
- dequity
- domestic debt
- European debt crisis
- external debt
- foreign debt
- government debt
- in debt
- in someone's debt
- karmic debt
- margin debt
- megadebt
- mezzanine debt
- national debt
- nondebt
- nonfinancial debt
- odious debt
- oxygen debt
- pay nature's debt
- pay one's debt to society
- pay the debt of nature
- phantom debt
- privileged debt
- public debt
- robo-debt
Phrases with debt
- tech debt
- debt traps
- sleep debt
- toxic debt
- debt slaves
- zombie debt
- debt burdens
- secured debt
- debt bondages
- debt ceilings
- debt releases
- debt slaveries
14 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with debt
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- upset
- vignette
- whet
- sett
- cornet
- let
- manchette
- roulette
- yet
- cadet
- cassette
- collarette
- forget
- pet
- banquette
- met
- mignonette
- musette
- octet
- reset
- unset
- abet
- beget
- brunette
- cuvette
- dinette
- dudette
- duet
- minuet
- navette
- planchette
- quartet
- regret
- silhouette
- vinaigrette
- aid and abet
- amourette
- barrette
- bavette
- bet
- brett
- briquette
- corvette
- couchette
- enucleate
- fossette
- grisette
- ket
Questions about debt
- What does debt mean?
- Debt means an action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
- What is debt in Hindi?
- Debt in Hindi is क़र्ज़ (qarz), ऋण (ŕṇ). See Debt meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use debt in a sentence?
- I've got a new complaint / Forever in debt to your priceless advice
- What part of speech is debt?
- Debt is a noun.
- How do you pronounce debt?
- Debt is pronounced /ˈdɛt/.
- What is the plural of debt?
- The plural of debt is debts.
Words near debt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: debt (page history and authors); debt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഋണം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಋಣ (Kannada) (page history and authors); રણ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ধাৰ (Assamese) (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: en-us-debt.ogg.
Cite this entry: “debt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/debt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.