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ratepayer

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: ratepayers

A ratepayer is somebody who pays the local charge on a property. Local ratepayers, at the ratepayers' expense, ratepayer money.

The domestic rates were replaced in Britain by the poll tax and then by council tax, so the word survives chiefly for businesses and in older complaints. It carries an implied claim to be listened to.

Definitions of ratepayer

  1. 1nounratepayerSomeone who pays the local charge on a property.C2

    “Local ratepayers complained that the council was wasting their money on a new statue.”

ratepayer is a payer.

Where it comes from

Rate plus payer, from rate in the sense of a local property charge.

From rate + payer.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the City

Practise this word