Refund

How to spell refund

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce refund

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does refund mean?

1. nounA sum of money paid back to a customer, especially for a returned or unsatisfactory purchase.
2. verbTo pay back money to someone, typically because goods were returned or a service was not provided.

Refund in a sentence

• noun

  The store issued a full refund for the faulty kettle.

• verb

  The airline agreed to refund the cost of the missed connection.

• noun

  She is still waiting for a refund on the cancelled flight.

• verb

  We will refund your deposit once the keys are returned.

Where does refund come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Refund comes from the Latin refundere, which literally meant 'to pour back', combining the prefix re- 'back' with fundere 'to pour' or 'to give freely'. The same fundere root underlies a whole family of English words to do with pouring and flowing, including 'fuse', 'profuse', and 'foundry', so the original image was very physical: liquid poured back into its source. English took the word in through Old French in the late 1300s, at first in the sense of restoring or giving back generally, and it narrowed over time to the specific modern idea of returning money. The spelling stays neatly transparent, since the meaningful pieces re- and fund sit side by side with no doubling or silent letters, which makes it one of the gentler words to commit to memory.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• fund (from Latin fundere: to pour, give)