Meaning & use
financial ruin
Last updated
Meanings
phraseuncountableformal
A situation in which a person or organization has lost almost all their money and can no longer pay what they owe.
Grammar: Used without 'a' or 'an' and without a plural: the company faced financial ruin.
Patterns
- face financial ruin
- be brought to financial ruin
- on the brink of financial ruin
- save someone from financial ruin
Years of careless spending left the family close to financial ruin.
The new tax brought many small farmers to the brink of financial ruin.
Only a last-minute loan saved the business from financial ruin.
phraseuncountablefigurative
A state of complete loss of wealth, often used figuratively about a person's whole life or reputation.
Grammar: Still uncountable; often used after verbs like 'mean', 'spell', or 'lead to'.
Patterns
- mean financial ruin for someone
- spell financial ruin
- lead someone to financial ruin
For the investors, the collapse of the fund meant financial ruin.
Gambling debts had led him to financial ruin by the age of forty.
phraseuncountablefigurativeformal
Complete destruction of something valuable, especially a plan or reputation, described as if it were a money disaster.
Grammar: Used figuratively with abstract things, not with money itself.
Patterns
- the financial ruin of something
- bring financial ruin on something
The scandal was the financial ruin of his political career.
Bad planning brought financial ruin on the whole project.
Common combinations
- face financial ruin
- Without new orders, the factory will face financial ruin within a year.
- be on the brink of financial ruin
- After the flood, the town was on the brink of financial ruin.
- save someone from financial ruin
- A single large contract saved the firm from financial ruin.
- spell financial ruin for someone
- A rise in interest rates could spell financial ruin for young homeowners.
- bring someone to financial ruin
- Reckless borrowing brought him to financial ruin.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bankruptcy
- This is a legal status declared when someone cannot pay debts, while 'financial ruin' is a looser, more dramatic description of losing one's money.
- insolvency
- A technical finance term for owing more than you can pay; 'financial ruin' is broader and can be emotional or figurative.
- destitution
- This means extreme poverty with no money at all for basic needs, whereas 'financial ruin' can describe a business or a career, not only personal poverty.
Opposites
Word family
- financial adjective
- Relating to money and how it is managed.
- financially adverb
- In a way that relates to money, as in 'financially secure'.
- finance noun
- The management of money, or the money itself.
- ruin noun
- The state of being destroyed or spoiled, or the cause of such destruction.
- ruined adjective
- Destroyed or made worthless, often about buildings or lives.
Commonly confused: financial ruin or ruination? financial ruin or financial loss?
financial ruin vs ruination
This means the act or process of destroying something; 'financial ruin' is the result or state of having lost one's money.
financial ruin vs financial loss
A 'financial loss' can be small or temporary, but 'financial ruin' suggests total, lasting collapse.
Practice
After the factory closed, the whole town was on the brink of ______.
Choose one answer.
'Financial ruin' is uncountable, so it needs no article and has no plural. 'A financial ruin' and 'financial ruins' wrongly treat it as countable, and 'financial ruining' is not a noun phrase used in English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “financial ruin”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.