down payment

noun

: a part of the full price paid at the time of purchase or delivery with the balance to be paid later

broadly : the first step in a process

Examples of down payment in a Sentence

She made a 10 percent down payment on the car.

We put a down payment on the house.

Recent Examples on the Web

Offers first-time homebuyer grants for eligible applicants to use towards closing costs and down payments. —Kelsey Neubauer, CNBC, 11 July 2024

Points can be put towards rent or a down payment, converted to $0.015 per point. —Rocio Fabbro, Quartz, 11 July 2024

Banks lent more than $40 million, said Krysta Pate, CEO of the Ownership Initiative, which designed the down payment assistance program. —Nushrat Rahman, Detroit Free Press, 28 June 2024

Expensive homes, big down payment Home prices remain sky-high, which is another key factor exacerbating America’s affordability crisis. —Bryan Mena, CNN, 20 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

down payment

noun

: a part of the full price paid at the time of purchase or delivery with the remainder to be paid later