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

Refreshed 2026 Tesla Model Y Long-Range All-Wheel Drive: Lease: $499/month, 36 Months, 10,000 miles/year, $2,999 down payment (before taxes and fees). —Brooke Crothers, Forbes.com, 4 May 2025

There’s near-universal agreement among housing observers that the primary barrier to ownership, for most people, is the down payment. —Andrea Riquier, USA Today, 2 May 2025

Along with saving for a down payment, expenses related to closing are among the top barriers to homeownership for Americans, according to data from the Urban Institute. —Kelsey Neubauer, CNBC, 28 Apr. 2025

Stone said the cost of purchasing both low- and moderately-priced homes would be capped at 30% of the buyers’ income, and Habitat for Humanity would require no down payment. —Richard Halstead, Mercury News, 28 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for down payment

• copayment
• embayment
• nonpayment
• prepayment
• repayment
• claimant
• overpayment
• underpayment

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