debtor

noun

debt·​or ˈde-tər 

1

: one guilty of neglect or violation of duty

2

: one who owes a debt

Examples of debtor in a Sentence

The debtor agrees to pay the debt over a three-year period.

Recent Examples on the Web

The bankruptcy filing landed in a Michigan court because the debtor's principal place of business address is in Michigan. —Olivia Evans, Louisville Courier Journal, 4 Aug. 2025

John Greenway, Managing Partner, founded the firm in 2017 to address abusive creditor behavior and the general lack of support for debtors, a philosophy that the company still follows. —Jason Phillips, USA Today, 26 July 2025

When there is too much debt and borrowing, the classic way of dealing with it is to push real interest rates down and devalue money, which is bad for creditors and good for debtors. —Ray Dalio, Time, 22 July 2025

Both her documentary and Farhadi’s narrative feature were inspired by a real-life incident in 2011 in which a man in Iran on furlough from a debtors’ prison found a bag of gold coins and returned them to their owner rather than keeping them for himself. —Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 24 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for debtor

• better
• bettor
• fetter
• getter
• letter
• netter
• petar
• petter
• rhetor
• setter
• sweater
• tetter

Kids Definition

debtor

noun

debt·​or ˈdet-ər 

1

: sinner

2

: one that owes a debt

Legal Definition

debtor

noun

debt·​or

: a person who owes a debt see also bankrupt compare creditor, obligee, obligor

Note: The Bankruptcy Act of 1978 calls the person concerned in a bankruptcy case the “debtor” as opposed to the “bankrupt.”