Debenture Meaning
/dɪˈbɛntjʊə/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA certificate that certifies an amount of money owed to someone; a certificate of indebtedness.
nounA certificate of a loan made to the government; a government bond.
Sentence Examples
As a fixed-income security, a debenture provides steady returns to cautious investors.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The company issued a ____ to raise capital for expansion.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
As a fixed-income security, a ____ provides steady returns to cautious investors.
Word Origin & History
From earlier debentur, from Latin debentur (“they are owing”), supposedly the first word of such a document in early times. The ending was apparently influenced by words in -(t)ure.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"This was the West Lancashire Railway, an ambitious but feckless little concern which, in a life lasting a quarter of a century, never earned a dividend, failed to keep up its debenture payments (despite a dangerous attempt to do so by issuing more debentures) and ended up in the hands of a receiver."
— 1960 March 26, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Preston—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 201:
"Madame Corre, who made the important decisions after her plodding husband had spent hours on the ledger, sold the family debentures and put the money into Dutch decurities."
— 1942, Elliot Paul, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Sickle Moon, published 2001, page 72:
"That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The company issued a ____ to raise capital for expansion.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
As a fixed-income security, a ____ provides steady returns to cautious investors.