What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

What is the difference between debt and due?

debt | due |

As nouns the difference between debt and due

is that debt is an action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another while due is deserved acknowledgment.

As an adjective due is

owed or owing.

As an adverb due is

directly; exactly.

debt

English

(wikipedia debt)

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
  • * 1589 , (William Shakespeare), Henry IV, Part I , act 1, sc. 3,
    • Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
    Of this proud king, who studies day and night
    To answer all the debt he owes to you
    Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
  • * 1850 , (Nathaniel Hawthorne), (The Scarlet Letter) , ch. 14,
    • This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.
  • The state or condition of owing something to another.
  • Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
  • * 1919 , (Upton Sinclair), Jimmie Higgins , ch. 15,
    • Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • (legal) An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due.
    • (Burrill)

    Derived terms

    * bad debt * debt exchange * debt-equity ratio * debt-laden * debt of honor * domestic debt * external debt * foreign debt * in debt * national debt * technical debt

    Related terms

    * debit * debitor * debtor * indebted

    External links

    * *

    due

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Owed or owing.
  • Appropriate.
  • * Gray
    • With dirges due , in sad array, / Slow through the churchway path we saw him borne.
  • Scheduled; expected.
  • Having reached the expected, scheduled, or natural time.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.}}
  • Owing; ascribable, as to a cause.
  • * J. D. Forbes
    • This effect is due to the attraction of the sun.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother

    Synonyms

    * (owed or owing) needed, owing, to be made, required * (appropriate) * expected, forecast * (having reached the scheduled or natural time) expected

    Derived terms

    * driving without due care and attention * due date * due to * in due time * taxes due * with all due respect

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (used with compass directions) Directly; exactly.
    • The river runs due north for about a mile.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Deserved acknowledgment.
    • Give him his due — he is a good actor.
  • * {{quote-news, author=Daniel Taylor, title=David Silva seizes point for Manchester City as Chelsea are checked, work=(The Guardian) (London), date=31 January 2015 citation
    • , passage=Chelsea, to give them their due , did start to cut out the defensive lapses as the game went on but they needed to because their opponents were throwing everything at them in those stages and, if anything, seemed encouraged by the message that Mourinho’s Rémy-Cahill switch sent out.}}
  • (in plural dues ) A membership fee.
  • That which is owed; debt; that which belongs or may be claimed as a right; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done, duty.
  • * Shakespeare
    • He will give the devil his due .
  • * Tennyson
    • Yearly little dues of wheat, and wine, and oil.
  • Right; just title or claim.
  • * Milton
    • The key of this infernal pit by due I keep.

    Derived terms

    * give someone his due * give the devil his due

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * ----