Word.ws English Dictionary

pays it forward

pays it forward is the third-person singular simple present indicative of pay it forward.

Meaning of pay it 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)

  1. 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

Questions about pays it forward

What is pays it forward the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Pays it forward is the third-person singular simple present indicative of pay it forward.

Words near pays it forward in the dictionary

  1. pays forward
  2. pays good money after bad
  3. pays heed
  4. pays homage to
  5. pays home
  6. pays it forward
  7. pays nature's debt
  8. pays no heed
  9. pays no mind
  10. pays off
  11. pays off old scores

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pays it forward (page history and authors); 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: “pays it forward.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pays_it_forward. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.