foreclosure
Americannoun
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:
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
Their bank filed a foreclosure complaint the following August.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Thompson said his home fell into foreclosure after he took out second and third mortgages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
A landmarked downtown Los Angeles apartment building designed by famed Los Angeles architect John Parkinson is on the market as its owners face foreclosure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
The neighbors to the south of us moved out and their place is in foreclosure.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
“They’re talking about a lot more foreclosures and a lot of loan restructuring.”
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
Don’t expect dramatic drops in home prices or a wave of foreclosures.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
It also banned late fees, foreclosures and negative reports to credit bureaus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
Left behind are defaulted loans, foreclosures and deeply discounted property sales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
The various bonds you make from those loans will go bad not as the loans go bad but months later, after a lot of tedious foreclosures and bankruptcies and forced sales.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
