leveraged

adjective

lev·​er·​aged ˈle-və-rijd 

ˈlē-;

ˈlev-rijd, 

ˈlēv-

1

: having a high proportion of debt relative to equity

2

of the purchase of a company : made with borrowed money that is secured by the assets of the company bought

a leveraged buyout

Examples of leveraged in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some armchair investors dabble in leveraged stock investments, but leveraging stocks can be risky. —Daniel De Visé, USA Today, 14 Dec. 2025

And Bank for International Settlements General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos warned in a speech that there was too much liquidity being offered to nonbank financial institutions to do leveraged trades on government debt. —Jim Edwards, Fortune, 3 Dec. 2025

The downturn accelerated when roughly $19 billion in leveraged bets were wiped out. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 2 Dec. 2025

The declines come amid liquidations of highly leveraged crypto positions, with traders pulling out of risk-on investments into risk-off assets such as gold due to mixed economic data and worries about valuations in artificial intelligence stocks. —Liz Napolitano, CNBC, 26 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1953, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing leveraged

• leveraged buyout