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Arrear vs Arrears - What's the difference?

arrear | arrears |

As nouns the difference between arrear and arrears

is that arrear is work to be done, obligation while arrears is an unpaid or overdue obligation. A debt.

As an adverb arrear

is towards the rear, backwards.

arrear

English

Adverb

(en adverb)
  • (obsolete) Towards the rear, backwards.
  • * 1591 , Edmund Spenser, Virgil's Gnat , ll. 465-8:
    • She, (Ladie) having well before approoved / The feends to be too cruell and severe, / Observ'd th' appointed way, as her behooved, / Ne ever did her ey-sight turne arere [...].
  • (obsolete) Behind time; overdue.
  • * 1803 , Edward Hyde East, Reports of cases Argued and determined in the Court of King's Bench , London 1814, vol. 3, p. 559:
    • In case the annuity should be arrear for sixty days being lawfully demanded, then the trustee might enter upon the premises assigned [...].

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Work to be done, obligation.
    • I have a large arrear of letters to write. -- J. D. Forbes.
    My own work, with its manifold arrears , took me all day to clear off. -- Stoker, Dracula
  • Unpaid debt.

    • arrears

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • An unpaid or overdue obligation. A debt.
  • English plurals