Indebted

How to spell indebted

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce indebted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does indebted mean?

1. adjectiveOwing money or feeling a deep obligation of gratitude to someone for help received.

Indebted in a sentence

• After the renovation, they were heavily indebted to the bank for years.

• She remained indebted to the mentor who launched her career.

Where does indebted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grew out of the noun 'debt', which English took from the Old French 'dette' in the 1200s, meaning money or a favour that is owed. The French form itself descended from the Latin 'debitum', 'a thing owed', built on the verb 'debere', 'to owe', which combined 'de-' (away from) and 'habere' (to have), the literal idea being to have something taken away from you that must be returned. The verb 'indebt', meaning to put someone under obligation, appeared in late Middle English with the prefix 'in-', and 'indebted' is its past-participle adjective. The puzzling silent 'b' is the great spelling trap here: English speakers wrote 'dette' for centuries, but Renaissance scholars deliberately reinserted the 'b' to flag the word's Latin parent 'debitum', even though nobody pronounces it. The same silent-'b' restyling also gave us 'doubt' from Latin 'dubitare', so the two words share both an origin story and a spelling headache.

How the word is built

• in- (intensive/in a state of)
• debt (from Latin debitum: something owed)
• -ed (adjective suffix)