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arrears

UK/əˈɹɪə(ɹ)z/US/əˈɹɪə(ɹ)z/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,985 of 15,258leans written

Arrears are payments you have fallen behind on. Rent arrears, fall into arrears, clear the arrears.

The word is plural only, and it means the overdue amount rather than the debt as a whole. Paid in arrears is a different and neutral sense, meaning paid after the work rather than before it, which is how most salaries run.

Larry & Teddy Page from Cedar, Michigan, USA · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of arrears

  1. 1nounarrearsPayments you have fallen behind on.C1

    “They fell three months into arrears on their rent and received a warning letter.”

arrears is a debt.

Practised in Bank & Post Office

Practise this word

arrears in the wild

  • In finance, arrears (or arrearage) is a legal term for the part of a debt that is overdue after missing one or more required payments.

    Arrears

  • The amount of the arrears is the amount accrued from the date on which the first missed payment was due.

    Arrears

  • Lot 67 was awarded to Robert Moore in the 1767 land lottery; but was sold for arrears of quitrent in 1781.

    Lot 67, Prince Edward Island

  • Half of it had been sold for arrears of quitrent by 1781, and one quarter was granted to Loyalists.

    Lot 17, Prince Edward Island

  • One half was sold for arrears in quitrent in 1781.

    Lot 25, Prince Edward Island

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.