Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An unpaid, overdue debt or an unfulfilled obligation.
- n. The state of being behind in fulfilling obligations: an account in arrears.
Wiktionary
- n. An unpaid or overdue obligation. A debt.
- n. Plural form of arrear.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the state of being behind in payments
- n. an unpaid overdue debt
Etymologies
- Middle English arrers, from arrere, behind, from Old French arere, from Vulgar Latin *ad retrō, backward : Latin ad, to; see ad- + Latin retrō, behind; see re- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Of the 1.8 million people with such loans, 400,000 are behind on their payments - with 100,000 in arrears by three months or more.”
“Peter Cargill claimed that the number of indebted countries in arrears regarding payments to the World Bank and/or that were seeking to renegotiate their multilateral debt had risen from three to eighteen between 1974 and 1978!”
“Pathetic, think that maybe Ensign was in arrears on paying for his Cadillac health plan there?”
“If you are a skilled planner how do you let a modest mortgage get months in arrears while earning $118k a year?”
“And when I was writing my story, I visited Kansas City, a pretty working-class crowd, and I talked to a lot of men who had been in arrears in child support.”
“The Braves are buried, along with the Marlins, eight games in arrears with 32 to go.”
Division race over, Braves turn sights toward wild card - sports
“A least one notice regarding the hearing will have been sent to the last known address of the individual in arrears, OR published in a newspaper from the area where the hearing will be held.”
“Can an individual who is in arrears on child support payments have his/her bank account frozen?”
“Not only can they freeze his accounts (and depending how much in arrears he is in) They can seize it for back child support.”
“More gravely, it is as much as three years in arrears to providers of building supplies and electrical services.”
The Wall Street Journal: Spanish Towns Struggle Under Crushing Debts
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘arrears’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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ECON - banking and stock trading
banking system, bear market, bearer bill, bearer bond, bearer cheque, bearer share, bill for collection, blank cheque, blank endorsement, bond holder, debenture holder, bond issue and 250 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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Favourite Words
Just a bunch of words I like and wish I used more often in everyday speech.
adroit, soporific, ostensibly, prolific, auspicious, brio, mucilage, bromide, opprobrium, aplomb, invective, recalcitrant and 114 more...
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lee_d's Words
neologism, epicaricacy, chillax, arrears, locution, ressentiment, facticity, glib, escritoire, epicurian, alacrity, arbitrageur and 150 more...
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SAVED FAVES
Listless no more,
arrears, addle, akimbo, allure, appurtenance, bibelot, bibulous, bifurcate, blither, boodle, crapulous, coprolite and 122 more...
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Field Mass
for the same
fanon, armet, wether, filibuster, shadoof, shabrack, mai, sainfoin, sand-crack, panoply, guerdon, flunky and 233 more...
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MsHalston's Words
theoretically, insufferable, apolitico, milquetoast, egregious, aplomb, elan, fraught, flummox, befrocked, moll, molten and 605 more...
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zetadiction
words that embody life
hydrae, kleptocracy, curmudgeon, wordie, risotto, qi, pulchritudinous, micropolitan, schadenfreude, neolithic, experimentalist, zeta and 477 more...
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frequent toefl
Words that I do not know or unsure for toefl
appurtenances, aptitude, arbitrary, arboretum, argot, arrears, avocation, avuncular, badger, bait, warden, bane and 428 more...
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hannah's Words
perpetuity, portmanteau, scintillate, elucidate, surreptitious, reticulate, cavilling, laudatory, milquetoast, inimitable, schadenfreude, ancillary and 212 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for arrears.

jwjarvis there was a persistent need to grapple with appeals from individuals who had fallen in arrears. Sep 14, 2010
chained_bear No. Aug 20, 2008
super-logos c-b, does this word chafe your ass? Aug 20, 2008