debt
/ˈdɛt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.69 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid."
- "I am in your debt."
- "We owe them a debt of gratitude for taking care of our pets."
- "The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt."
- "Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint / Forever in debt to your priceless advice"
Etymology
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.