Word.ws English Dictionary

payback

/ˈpeɪbæk/

payback noun: an act of revenge. Also the misspelling of pay back.

Noun

payback (usually uncountable, plural paybacks)

  1. (usually) An act of revenge.
    • They beat us last year, so this year's win was payback.
  2. (countable, usually) A benefit, reward, a form of recompense.
    • They identify three tangible paybacks.2009 February 2, Carol Goar, “You can help cleaners earn decent wages”, in Toronto Star
  3. (usually) A return on investment.
  4. (rare, usually) A refund; reimbursement.

Also used as

payback is also the misspelling of pay back.

payback meaning in Punjabi

payback in Punjabi

ਵਾਪਸ ਭੁਗਤਾਨ

Synonyms of payback

All synonyms of payback

Forms of payback

pluralpaybacks

Plural of payback: paybacks

Origin of payback

Deverbal from pay back.

Words formed from payback

Phrases with payback

Questions about payback

What does payback mean?
Payback means an act of revenge.
What is payback in Punjabi?
Payback in Punjabi is ਵਾਪਸ ਭੁਗਤਾਨ. See Payback meaning in Punjabi.
What part of speech is payback?
Payback is a noun.
How do you pronounce payback?
Payback is pronounced /ˈpeɪbæk/.
What is the plural of payback?
The plural of payback is paybacks.

Words near payback in the dictionary

  1. payaras
  2. payasam
  3. payasams
  4. Payatas
  5. Payavan
  6. payback
  7. paybacks
  8. payband
  9. paybands
  10. paybill
  11. paybills

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: payback (page history and authors); payback (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-payback.wav.

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