debt

CEFRB1

/ˈdɛt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Money that a person or organization owes.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    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.

Examples

  • Our debt is more than we can pay.

  • You need only ask him to pay the debt.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈdɛbt/
  • /ˈdɛp(t)/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The state or condition of owing something to another.

  2. An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.

  3. An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due

More examples

In context

  • I am in your debt.

  • This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.

  • 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.

Quick test

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He struggled to pay off his student blank for years.

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Nearby

Origin

noun

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.