Other forms: debts
A debt is money you have borrowed and still must pay back. Pay off the debt, in debt, national debt.
The b is silent and was never pronounced in English — it was inserted by scholars to show the Latin debitum, and the same tidying gave doubt its b. A debt of gratitude is the figurative use. National debt is owed by a state and is normally rolled over rather than repaid. Note debtor, indebted.
1noundebtMoney borrowed and still owed.
“He took a second job to pay off his debts.”
2nounobligationAn obligation owed to somebody.
“I owe you a debt of gratitude for helping me when I was ill.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
debt is an obligation.
Old French dete comes from Latin debitum, what is owed. The silent b was added later to show the Latin, as in doubt.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰeh₁bʰ-
Latin
dēbitum — what is owed, a debt, a duty
Medieval Latin
dēbita
Old French
dete
Middle English
dette
English, today
debt
Built from
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”). a doublet of debit. Displaced native Old English eofot. The unpronounced "b" in the modern English spelling is a Latinisation from the Latin etymon dēbitum.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA