FreeScrabbleDictionary

debt

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
7
Words With Friends
8
Letters
4
Pronunciation
/ˈdɛt/
See all 4 pronunciations
/ˈdɛt/ · [ˈdɛt] · /ˈdɛbt/ · /ˈdɛp(t)/

Definition of debt

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
    “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.”
See all 4 definitions

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
    “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.”
  2. (countable, uncountable)The state or condition of owing something to another.
    “I am in your debt.”
    “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”
  3. (countable, uncountable)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.
    “Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.”
    “Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.”
    “I don't own any stocks or bonds. All my money is tied up in debt.”
  4. (countable, uncountable)An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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…

See full 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. The unpronounced "b" in the modern English spelling is a Latinisation from the Latin etymon dēbitum.

Words you can make from debt

9 playable · top: BED (6 pts)

Best play bed 6 points

3-letter words

3 words

2-letter words

5 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to debt to make another valid word.

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