pay it forward
pay it forward verb: synonym of pay forward.
Verb
pay it forward (third-person singular simple present pays it forward, present participle paying it forward, simple past and past participle paid it forward)
- Synonym of pay forward.
- The study authors, citing other examples of "pay it forward" kindness at fast food restaurants and their own experiments encouraging subjects to help others, write: "Why, in the absence of external sanctions and opportunities for reciprocation, do people help strangers? One possible explanation is...2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR
- Synonyms:
- pay forward
Synonyms of pay it forward
Forms of pay it forward
| third-person singular present | pays it forward |
|---|---|
| present participle | paying it forward |
| past participle | paid it forward |
| past | paid it forward |
Questions about pay it forward
- What does pay it forward mean?
- Pay it forward means synonym of pay forward.
- What part of speech is pay it forward?
- Pay it forward is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pay it forward?
- The past tense of pay it forward is paid it forward.
Words near pay it forward in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pay it forward (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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Cite this entry: “pay it forward.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pay_it_forward. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.