Securities

How to spell securities

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce securities

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does securities mean?

1. nounTradable financial instruments such as stocks, shares, and bonds.
2. nounThings pledged or deposited as a guarantee that an obligation will be met.

Securities in a sentence

• The fund holds a mix of government bonds and other securities.

• The lender demanded several securities before approving the loan.

• Regulators investigated the bank for mispricing its securities.

• The court accepted property deeds as securities for the bail.

Where does securities come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin securus, which literally meant 'free from care' or 'untroubled', formed from se- meaning 'without' and cura meaning 'care' or 'concern'. From securus Latin built the noun securitas, the state of being safe and untroubled, and English borrowed it through the 1400s and 1500s as 'security'. The financial sense grew later: by the seventeenth century a 'security' was something pledged as a guarantee that a debt would be repaid, since it gave the lender freedom from worry. From there the plural 'securities' came to name tradable financial instruments such as stocks and bonds. The buried Latin cura still surfaces in everyday relatives like 'cure', 'curious', and 'manicure', and remembering the cur in the middle helps with the spelling, since the tricky part is the unstressed -ities ending rather than the root.

How the word is built

• se- (without)
• cur- (from cura: care)
• -ity (state of)
• -es (plural)