delinquent
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihlingkwuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈlɪŋkwənt
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.
adjective
Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
Of a payment or other financial obligation: late or otherwise unfulfilled.
Failing in or neglectful of a duty or obligation; guilty of a misdeed or offense
noun
A person who has not paid their debts.
One who disobeys or breaks rules or laws, or who acts against another's wishes.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
Used this way, delinquent is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a financial use: it has a settled meaning in accounting and business, where precision matters more than colour.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
- Business/professional
- Ethics/values
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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- mortgagenoun
- delinquencynoun
- liennoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: late or failing to pay a debt
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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.