bankruptcy
noun
Simple meaning
A legally declared or recognized condition of insolvency of a person or organization.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bangkruhpseeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbæŋkɹəpsi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
financelaw
A legally declared or recognized condition of insolvency of a person or organization.
card games
A rule in Tycoon where if the top player does not get first place that round, they instantly get last place
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A legally declared or recognized condition of insolvency of a person or organization.
Used this way, bankruptcy is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
- Finance/economics
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bankruptcy
- “The company had to declare bankruptcy.”noun
- “Spiritual bankruptcy.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- reorganizationnoun
- filingnoun
- proceedingsnoun
- trusteenoun
- proceedingnoun
- litigationnoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.