repay
/ɹiˈpeɪ/
repay verb: synonym of pay back in all senses.
Verb (1)
repay (third-person singular simple present repays, present participle repaying, simple past and past participle repaid)
- Synonym of pay back in all senses.
- I finally repaid my student loans, just before sending my kids to college.
- I'll repay this wrong asap.
- Synonyms:
- liquidate, pay back in all senses
- To make worthwhile; to yield a result worth the effort; to pay off.
- The possible importance of excessive androgen secretion and the ingestion of agents such as the fluorenamines may repay further investigation.2013, M. Pavone-MacAluso, Testicular Cancer and Other Tumors of the Genitourinary Tract, page 517
- To give in return; requite.
Verb (2)
repay (third-person singular simple present repays, present participle repaying, simple past and past participle repayed or repaid)
- To pay (cover with tar, pitch, etc.) again.
repay meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
repay in Hindi
- to repay
- लौटाना lauṭānā
repay in Tamil
- திருப்பிக் கொடு, திரும்பச் செலுத்து, மறுபடி செலுத்து
repay in Marathi
- परतफेड करणे
repay in Urdu
- بدلے میں دینا, چکانا, تلافی کرنا, واپس ادا کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
- repay in Malayalam
- മടക്കിക്കൊടുക്കുക, പ്രതിഫലം കൊടുക്കുക, പകരം ചെയ്യുക
- repay in Kannada
- ಹಿಂದಿರುಗಿಸು, ಹಿಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಕೊಡು, ಮರು ಕೊಡು
- repay in Punjabi
- ਤਾਰਨਾ tārnā
Examples of repay in a sentence
- But drops of Grief can ne’re repay / The debt of Love I owe, […]1707, Isaac Watts, “Godly Sorrow ariſing from the Sufferings of Chriſt”, in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, London: J. Humfreys, page 86:
- On the results of the Kent Coast electrification, which is known to be repaying so far a satisfactory return on the investment in it, a Waterloo-Bournemouth scheme shows reasonable financial promise.1962 April, “Talking of Trains: Short-sighted approach to profits?”, in Modern Railways, page 219:
- I was low as low could go / Could not stand anymore / Oh, I could never, never / Never, never repay you1973, Billy Paul, “Thanks for Saving My Life”, in War of the Gods:
Synonyms of repay
- liquidate
- pay back in all senses
Forms of repay
| third-person singular present | repays |
|---|---|
| present participle | repaying |
| past participle | repaid |
| past | repaid |
| past participle | repayed |
| past | repayed |
Origin of repay
From Old French repaier (“to pay back”), from re- + paiier (“to pay”), from Latin pācāre (“to settle, to make peaceful”), from pāx (“peace”) + -ō (forming verbs). Equivalent to re- + pay. Cognate with repacify and French repayer (“to pay again”).
Words formed from repay
Words that rhyme with repay
Questions about repay
- What does repay mean?
- Repay means synonym of pay back in all senses.
- What is repay in Hindi?
- Repay in Hindi is लौटाना (lauṭānā). See Repay meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use repay in a sentence?
- But drops of Grief can ne’re repay / The debt of Love I owe, […]
- What part of speech is repay?
- Repay is a verb.
- How do you pronounce repay?
- Repay is pronounced /ɹiˈpeɪ/.
- What is the past tense of repay?
- The past tense of repay is repaid.
Words near repay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: repay (page history and authors); लौटाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); repay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); repay (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); repay (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); repay (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); repay (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਤਾਰਨਾ (Punjabi) (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: en-us-repay.ogg.
Cite this entry: “repay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/repay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.