Meaning & use
arrears
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Meanings
nounpluralfinance
Money that you owe because you failed to pay it on time, such as unpaid rent or bills.
Grammar: Plural in form and meaning, with no singular: the arrears are large.
Patterns
- arrears on something
- in arrears with something
The tenant owed several months of arrears on the rent.
The company cleared its arrears before the deadline.
He fell into arrears on his car loan.
nounpluralformal
Work or duties that are overdue and still have to be done.
Grammar: Used mainly in formal contexts, often with arrears of work.
Patterns
- arrears of work
After her illness she had arrears of work to catch up on.
The clerk spent the weekend clearing arrears of paperwork.
phraseidiomfinance
In arrears: late with payment, or paid at the end of the period instead of the start.
Grammar: Appears as in arrears after a verb: be in arrears.
Patterns
- be in arrears
- paid in arrears
The family was three months in arrears on its mortgage.
Salaries are paid in arrears, at the end of each month.
Common combinations
- rent arrears
- The landlord began legal action over rent arrears.
- in arrears
- The account has been in arrears since March.
- pay off arrears
- She worked extra shifts to pay off her arrears.
- fall into arrears
- Many households fell into arrears during the crisis.
- mortgage arrears
- Mortgage arrears rose sharply last year.
Synonyms and how they differ
- overdue debt
- Overdue debt is plain wording for what arrears describes in formal and financial writing.
- backlog
- Backlog usually means piled-up work, not money, so it matches only the second sense of arrears.
- delinquency
- Delinquency is the formal state of failing to pay on time, whereas arrears is the amount unpaid.
Opposites
Word family
- arrear noun
- a rare singular form of arrears
- arrearage noun
- an old or legal word for overdue payments
Commonly confused: arrears or arrest?
arrears vs arrest
An arrest is when police take someone into custody; arrears is overdue money. The words sound a bit alike in fast speech.
Practice
The tenant is two months ______ arrears on the rent.
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase is in arrears, meaning behind with payments. On, under and at are not used with arrears in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “arrears”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.