debit
Americannoun
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the recording or an entry of debt in an account.
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Bookkeeping.
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that which is entered in an account as a debt; a recorded item of debt.
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any entry or the total shown on the debit side.
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the left-hand side of an account on which such entries are made (opposed to credit).
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an undesirable or disadvantageous feature.
verb (used with object)
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to charge with a debt.
The store debited her account for the purchase.
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to charge as a debt.
The store debited the purchase to her account.
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Bookkeeping. to enter upon the debit side of an account.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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debitsimple
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debitssimple
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have debitedperfect
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has debitedperfect
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am debitingprogressive
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are debitingprogressive
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is debitingprogressive
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have been debitingperfect progressive
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has been debitingperfect progressive
Past
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debitedsimple
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had debitedperfect
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was debitingprogressive
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were debitingprogressive
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had been debitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of debit
1400–50; late Middle English < Old French < Latin dēbitum something owed; see debt
Explanation
A debit is a payment made or charged, or the notation of the amount charged. Trying to track down the mysterious $2 debit to your bank account is almost never fruitful, but you’re bound to do it anyway. From the Latin debere, meaning “to owe,” and just one i away from its more blunt cousin debt, a debit seems like a little word. But add an s to the end, and those charges really add up. You can use the word debit as a verb — “to debit your account,” or a noun — “the debit on your account,” but either way, a debit means you have less money than you had before!
Vocabulary lists containing debit
"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 17
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de-
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Century 21 Accounting, 9e, Chapters 1-3
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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:
Robinhood entered the credit-card business in 2023, when it acquired Rao’s credit card startup X1 after rolling out a debit card.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
That could mean setting up a direct debit from your current account to a savings account, organising cash into different envelopes or using round-up tools that put spare change aside when you spend.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Bank of America even briefly threatened to charge $5 a month for debit cards after the rule took effect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Parents can use their debit cards, or electronic payments with an ACH transfer from their bank account, the official said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
He galloped around the table like he was riding an invisible bronco, waving his plastic debit card over his head and making whooping sounds.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
It may also involve traditional accounting activities, such as tracking payments in a general ledger, involving debits and credits and double-entry accounting, as well as accounts payable activities of making payments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
The ledger of Newman’s youth had mostly debits for the future painter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
According to Chabrier, the new rule keeps pace with the change in overdraft protection as paper checks have been replaced with instant debits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2024
In total these debits amounted to £1.3m and were taken from the accounts of 18 branches run by claimants in the Bates v Post Office case.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2024
And then the account book proper, with debits and credits on facing pages.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
In order to operate this way, fintech companies often need a middleman between the fintech company and the bank that can do the bookkeeping necessary to make sure customer accounts are credited and debited correctly.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024
Similar protection services are offered for ACH or transactions that are debited directly from a business bank account.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2024
At one bank, more than 60,000 accounts were debited more than $330 million the following morning, with about 7,300 account balances reduced by more than $10,000.
From Reuters ● Jun. 27, 2023
This will ensure that the appropriate funds are debited or credited from your account when you pay for a purchase or receive compensation from work.
From Encyclopedia.com ● Feb. 5, 2018
Within a complete trading area this is certain to happen, since purchases and sales of goods are equal and what is credited to one man is debited to another.
From Banking by Scott, William A.
But the mechanism by which the government sells its debt, debiting bank reserves held at the Fed in exchange for the new bills and bonds, could still test the resilience of some smaller institutions.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2023
Last month, the bureau punished Enova, which runs online lender CashNetUSA, for failing to honor promised loan extensions and for debiting customers’ bank accounts without authorization.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2019
This ability “endeared him to the Vatican,” because he could move church funds around by debiting an account in one branch and crediting one in another, with coins never changing hands.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 6, 2015
“All debt management is, is debiting and crediting different accounts,” Mr. Mosler said, recalling seeing numbers appear and disappear from his computer at Bankers Trust in New York in the 1970s.
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2013
The next is John Sinclair, jun.; after debiting his out-takes, he received 8s. 4d. in cash?-Yes.
From Second Shetland Truck System Report by Guthrie, William
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.
