Meaning & use
foreclosure
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountablelegalfinance
The legal action in which a lender takes and sells a property because the owner has not repaid the loan secured on it.
Grammar: Often used with in or into: a house in foreclosure, go into foreclosure.
Patterns
- in foreclosure
- face foreclosure
- foreclosure on something
The family faced foreclosure after losing their jobs and missing several mortgage payments.
Foreclosure on the farm forced them to move into town.
Thousands of homes were in foreclosure during the housing crisis.
Word forms
| plural | foreclosures |
|---|
Common combinations
- avoid foreclosure
- She took a second job to avoid foreclosure.
- face foreclosure
- Many owners faced foreclosure after interest rates rose.
- foreclosure proceedings
- The bank began foreclosure proceedings in March.
- in foreclosure
- The house has been in foreclosure for six months.
- foreclosure rate
- The foreclosure rate fell as the economy improved.
Synonyms and how they differ
- repossession
- Repossession is the standard British term for the same process on homes, and it can also apply to cars or goods, whereas foreclosure is tied to mortgages.
- seizure
- Seizure is a broad word for taking property by authority, not specifically after a loan default.
- forfeiture
- Forfeiture means losing something as a penalty, which is wider than losing a mortgaged property.
Word family
Commonly confused: foreclosure or forclosure?
foreclosure vs forclosure
Forclosure is a misspelling; the standard form has the letters fore, as in foreclosure.
Practice
What typically leads to foreclosure on a house?
Choose one answer.
Foreclosure happens when the borrower does not repay the mortgage and the lender takes the property. The other options have no such effect.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “foreclosure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.