Remit

How to spell remit

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce remit

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does remit mean?

1. verbTo send money in payment, typically to a person or organisation owed.
2. verbTo cancel or refrain from imposing a debt, punishment, or obligation.
3. nounThe task, scope, or area of authority officially assigned to a person or body.

Remit in a sentence

• verb

  Please remit the outstanding balance within thirty days.

• verb

  The court agreed to remit the remaining fine for good behaviour.

• noun

  Investigating staff pay falls outside the committee's remit.

• verb

  Tenants must remit the deposit before collecting the keys.

• verb

  The bank may remit part of the interest if you settle early.

• noun

  Keeping the streets clean is squarely within the council's remit.

Where does remit come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin verb remittere, which combined re-, meaning 'back', with mittere, meaning 'to send' or 'to let go'. The literal sense was therefore 'to send back', but in classical usage it spread to mean 'to slacken', 'to release', or 'to give up', as one might let go of a grievance or relax a punishment. English took it on in the 1300s, at first in the sense of forgiving or pardoning sins and debts, and later for slackening intensity (a fever or pain that remits) and for sending money back or onward in payment. The same mittere root powers a whole family of English words, including 'transmit', 'submit', 'permit' and 'mission', so the single 't' in 'remit' (it doubles only when you add a vowel, as in 'remitted' or 'remitting') echoes that shared origin. The noun sense, an area of official responsibility, is a later British development, picturing the task that has been sent or handed over to someone.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• mit (from Latin mittere: to send)