Arrears

How to spell arrears

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce arrears

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does arrears mean?

1. nounMoney that is owed and should already have been paid, having fallen behind schedule.

Arrears in a sentence

• The tenant fell three months into arrears on the rent.

• The council sent a letter demanding payment of the council tax arrears.

Where does arrears come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin phrase ad retro, meaning 'towards the back' or 'behind', which over time collapsed into the single idea of being 'in the rear'. It passed into Old French as arere, an adverb meaning 'behind' or 'in a backward position', and English borrowed it in the 1300s, at first as an adverb describing something that lagged behind. By the late medieval period the noun sense had hardened around money and obligations: payments that had fallen 'behind' schedule were said to be in arrears, and the word settled into its familiar plural form. The same retro root that means 'backward' survives in everyday words like 'retreat' and 'reverse', which is a useful reminder that arrears is fundamentally about being behind. The spelling trap is the doubled r and the -ears ending, since the word sounds nothing like 'ears' yet is written with them.

How the word is built

• ar- (from Latin ad: to, towards)
• rear (from retro: behind, backward)
• -s (plural)