Meaning & use
lender
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Meanings
nouncountablefinance
A person or organization that gives money or something else on condition that it is returned, usually with interest.
Grammar: Often followed by to: a lender to small firms.
Patterns
- a lender to someone
The lender required proof of income.
She repaid the lender in monthly installments.
Banks are the main lenders.
nouncountable
Anyone who lets someone use something temporarily.
Grammar: Informal and general: I'm a generous lender of books.
He is a reluctant lender of his tools.
The library is the lender of the book.
I'm the lender; you're the borrower.
Word forms
| plural | lenders |
|---|
Common combinations
- mortgage lender
- The mortgage lender approved the loan.
- payday lender
- Payday lenders charge high rates.
- lender of last resort
- The central bank is the lender of last resort.
- private lender
- He found a private lender.
- repay the lender
- They repay the lender every month.
Synonyms and how they differ
- creditor
- Creditor means someone owed money, even from unpaid bills.
- bank
- Bank is one kind of lender.
- financier
- Financier is a large-scale investor.
- moneylender
- Moneylender is an older term for a private lender, often with a negative tone.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: lender or borrower?
lender vs borrower
The borrower takes the money, and the lender gives it.
Practice
In a loan, the lender is the person who ___.
Choose one answer.
The lender provides the money.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lender”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.