foreclosure
Americannoun
-
foreclosures
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of foreclosure
Explanation
When a homeowner can't afford to pay her mortgage, she might face foreclosure, which is when a bank repossesses a borrower's house. A bank most often starts foreclosure proceedings against someone who's taken out a loan to buy a house when that person stops making monthly payments. The agreement a borrower makes when she gets a bank mortgage is that she'll pay a certain amount of money every month, and failing to do it means risking foreclosure. The word foreclosure comes from the Latin words fors, "out," and clore "to shut."
Vocabulary lists containing foreclosure
Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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American History II
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The Great Depression and The New Deal
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
County officials said at the time that the foreclosure sale was too good to pass up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
The mystery is an extreme example of what buyers can encounter when purchasing houses through foreclosure auctions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
The lawyer appointed by the court to oversee the foreclosure auction, Christopher Thogmartin, said he assumed most bidders planned to flip the home for resale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Marchion won the house in June at a “sight unseen” foreclosure auction, meaning bidders weren’t able to tour inside beforehand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
“Umm...right, so the house went into foreclosure in 2009. That’s a year before he was spotted panhandling in the city.”
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
We don’t have to live in a world where people profit from tragedy, be it wildfires or a child with cancer, housing foreclosures or weapons manufacturing.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
When delinquencies and foreclosures force boards to cut back or delay upkeep, it ultimately hurts property values for the entire neighborhood, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
“They’re talking about a lot more foreclosures and a lot of loan restructuring.”
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
This was the 11th consecutive month of rising housing foreclosures.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 7, 2026
Mom and Dad told me that foreclosures happen to a lot of families.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
