lien

¹ American  

[leen, lee-uhn] / lin, ˈli ən /

noun

1. Law. the legal claim of one person upon the property of another person to secure the payment of a debt or the satisfaction of an obligation.

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lien ² American  

[lahy-uhn, -en] / ˈlaɪ ən, -ɛn /

noun

Anatomy.

1. the spleen.

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lien British  

/ ˈliːən, liːn /

noun

1. law a right to retain possession of another's property pending discharge of a debt

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lien Cultural  

1. A claim or right given to a creditor to secure payment of a debt, usually by sale of the debtor's property.

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Other Word Forms

• lienable
  adjective
• lienal
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of lien¹

First recorded in 1525–35; from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin ligāmen “tie, bandage,” from ligā(re) “to tie” + -men, noun suffix of result; cf. ligament ( def. )

Origin of lien²

First recorded in 1645–55; from Latin liēn; see also spleen

Explanation

A lien is a claim against the property of someone who owes money. It's pronounced like "lean," which might also describe your meager finances if a lien has been placed on your home. When someone doesn't make payments on a loan, the bank may put a lien on that person's property, claiming ownership of that property until the overdue payment is received. The word lien derives from the Latin ligāre, which means "to bind," and you can see that "binding," or tying up a person's property, really does put the owner in a "bind."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lien

In July, it won court approval to place a lien on fees airlines pay to access the countries’ airspace.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Prosecutors say he falsified title insurance policies that showed the bank would have a first lien on the underlying collateral if the loan went bad, when in fact it did not.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026

Records show that Curtis paid off a $29,538 lien on the property in early December, more than a year after it was issued.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026

He agreed under protest to open the electronic gate in return for the commission’s reducing his fine by $1.1 million, to $1.4 million, secured by a lien on his home.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026

At common law the crown always had a lien on the lands and goods of debtors by record, which could be enforced even when they had passed into the hands of other persons.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 7 "Crocoite" to "Cuba" by Various