bankruptcy
Americannoun
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the state of being or becoming bankrupt.
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utter ruin, failure, depletion, or the like.
noun
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If an individual or a corporation declares bankruptcy, a court will appoint an official to make an inventory of the individual's or corporation's assets and to establish a schedule by which creditors can be partially repaid what is owed them.
An individual who is lacking a specific resource or quality is sometimes said to be bankrupt, as in intellectually bankrupt or morally bankrupt.
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Etymology
Origin of bankruptcy
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Explanation
Bankruptcy is a state of being bankrupt, or having no money to pay back debts that you owe. When you file for bankruptcy, you are giving up all your possessions and declaring, essentially, that you don't have any money left. During the recession, lots of businesses had to file for bankruptcy or declare by law that they were unable to pay off their debts. The ending of the word bankruptcy is a tricky one. Remember that it ends in tcy.
Vocabulary lists containing bankruptcy
Personal Finance and Financial Literacy - Introductory
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Personal Finance and Financial Literacy - High School
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Economics
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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.
By the time the company declared bankruptcy, about $9 billion was missing from accounts.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
What if something like The Familiar falls on hard times? iRobot—the company that Angle led for three decades before he left in 2024—declared bankruptcy last year after European authorities blocked its acquisition by Amazon.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
In 2022, during bankruptcy proceedings for an earlier iteration of the project, the trustee appointed to impartially oversee the case sued Calce too.
From Salon • Jun. 11, 2026
In 2010, Herbst Gaming declared bankruptcy and saw Primm taken over by Z Capital Partners.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
General Motors was days away from filing for bankruptcy.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
