repo

¹ American  

[ree-poh] / ˈri poʊ /

noun

• repos
  plural

1. a repurchase agreement.

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repo ² American  

[ree-poh] / ˈri poʊ /

noun

• repos
  plural

1. a repossessed property, especially a financed dwelling repossessed by the bank or other financing institution for delinquency of payment and offered for resale.

   We bought this trailer as a repo and have lived in it for 12 years, but now with kids we’re running out of room.

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adjective

1. engaged in or relating to the business of repossessing or taking back high-priced merchandise, such as motor vehicles or machinery, from buyers who have failed to pay.

   I’m told that a repo company can just go to an address, find the car parked, and grab it.

verb (used with object)

1. to repossess or take back (merchandise) from buyers who have failed to pay.

   When their dry cleaning business really began to struggle, the bank repoed all their equipment.

repo ³ American  

[ree-poh] / ˈri poʊ /

noun

Computers Informal.

• repos
  plural

1. repository.

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repo British  

/ ˈriːpəʊ /

noun

1. repurchase agreement

2. 1. repossession of property

   2. ( as modifier )

      a repo car

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• repos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of repo¹

First recorded in 1960–65; rep(urchase) + -o

Origin of repo²

By shortening of repossess; see -o

Origin of repo³

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

repo repos

The Indonesian central bank kept its benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate unchanged at 5.75%, as the rupiah stabilizes and it gauges the impact of prior interest-rate hikes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Bank Indonesia kept its benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate unchanged at 5.75%, in line with expectations and following back-to-back tightening in May and June.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Bank Indonesia unexpectedly kept its benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate unchanged at 5.75% on Wednesday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

The firms will use the tokenized assets for a broad set of transactions on Wednesday, including collateral transfers, repo transactions and equity trades.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

The repo team was probably already up there by now.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Government money-market funds own Treasurys and Fed-backed repos, and they are safer when the financial system gets a fever.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 2, 2025

The price of the benchmark seven-day repos traded in the interbank market, hit a high of 2.8% on Monday, the highest level since Oct.

From Reuters ● Nov. 27, 2023

The central bank also injected 2 billion yuan through seven-day reverse repos while keeping borrowing costs unchanged at 2.00%, it said in an online statement.

From Reuters ● May 15, 2023

Right now, the cost of paying interest on reverse repos and on reserve balances is outstripping income.

From Reuters ● Dec. 30, 2022

"Framed device of a lion passant crowned and collared, a mullet for difference, on an anchor; with Desir n'a repos, and the date 1586."

From Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) by Paul William Miller