noun
-
the act of paying
-
a sum of money paid
-
something given in return; punishment or reward
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of payment
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, variant of paiement, from Middle French; equivalent to pay 1 + -ment
Explanation
Payment is the process of either giving money to someone, or of receiving money from someone. If you borrow money to buy a car, you'll be expected to make a monthly payment for several years. Your paycheck itself is a payment, and so is the act of your boss handing you that paycheck. There are also types of payment that don't involve money, like when your payment for watching your little cousin one afternoon consists of a big piece of your uncle's famous apple pie. Payment, from the verb pay, is rooted in the Latin pacare, used to mean "satisfy a creditor," but originally defined as "please, satisfy, or make peaceful."
Vocabulary lists containing payment
"...And Although the Little Mermaid Sacrificed Everything..."
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Century 21 Accounting, 9e, Chapters 8-10
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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:
It said the council had made just under £3m in "super-profits" from Abu Dhabi-owned developments so far, and expected another payment soon.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026
Najib's aide, Ahmad Lutfi Azhar, also confirmed the payment and the former leader's lawyer Farhan Shafee said they had already obtained papers to transfer the former leader out of jail.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
He also ordered at that time the claimants should make an initial payment of £9.54m while the final total was calculated.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
The program, slated to be administrated by the California Housing Finance Agency, directs the state to create a down payment assistance fund for middle-income homebuyers, with up to $25 billion in bonds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
According to the quickly made agreement, Kontos and his men were promised full payment for the treasures they would bring up and hand over to the government.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
These payments are a share of the so-called "super profits".
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026
Advance payments to an unspecified number of depositors began on Thursday afternoon, a Central Bank official told AFP.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2026
The company has also entered into $895.4 billion of computing and infrastructure agreements, with $69.8 billion of payments due by the end of next September.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 7, 2026
Since these readings determine royalty and tax payments, the lab estimated that the errors could lead to an overstatement or understatement of a single well’s production value by as much as $36 million a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Though Papa still got the payments, I understand that I had gotten a raise that put me over $1.50 a week.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
