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:
If the homeowner fails to obtain coverage, the lender can “force-place” a policy and require a monthly payment.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
“It can be trade. It can be supply chains, the various financial payment systems. To be sovereign, I have to diversify, and therefore I need partners.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Its launch announcement said user credentials “go into secure storage” and “Muse has no visibility into people’s passwords or payment methods.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
That FBI's public service announcement, external described ShinyHunters as "threat actors" who often "use their real or exaggerated claims of access to sensitive or personal information to prompt payment from victims".
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
She didn’t know what she was looking for, exactly—some available shelter she could crawl into, some Hobbit inn that took energy bars as payment.
From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu
The Amsterdam-based payments provider named Niclas Neglen, who joins from online-payments company Klarna, as its next finance chief.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Net interest income is the spread between what a bank receives in interest payments on loans and what it pays out in interest on deposits.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
His latest report said health-related economic inactivity was costing Britain around £210bn a year in benefit payments and lost output.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
The Amsterdam-based payments provider appointed Neglen, who currently holds the role at online-payments company Karna, as its new CFO from February 2027.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Eventually, he found himself unable to meet the interest payments.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
