Meaning & use
uncollectibility
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Meanings
noununcountablefinancebusiness
The state or fact of a debt or account being impossible or very unlikely to be collected.
Grammar: Used without a/an or a plural; often in phrases like 'the uncollectibility of debts'.
Patterns
- the uncollectibility of something
- uncollectibility of debts
The bank's report highlighted the growing uncollectibility of loans in the region.
Auditors raised concerns about the uncollectibility of several large accounts receivable.
After the recession, the uncollectibility of many small business debts became a major issue.
noununcountableformal
The quality of being impossible to obtain or gather together.
Grammar: Used in formal or technical contexts; not common in everyday speech.
Patterns
- uncollectibility of something
The uncollectibility of reliable data made the research difficult.
Due to the uncollectibility of the scattered documents, the historian could not complete the archive.
Common combinations
- uncollectibility of debt
- The company wrote off the uncollectibility of debt as a loss.
- uncollectibility rate
- The uncollectibility rate for credit cards rose sharply last quarter.
- risk of uncollectibility
- Lenders assess the risk of uncollectibility before approving a loan.
- uncollectibility of accounts
- The uncollectibility of accounts receivable forced the firm to revise its budget.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bad debt
- Refers to the specific debt that cannot be collected, while uncollectibility is the abstract quality or state.
- irrecoverability
- Similar meaning but broader, often used for losses or assets, not just debts.
Opposites
Word family
- uncollectible adjective
- Describing a debt that cannot be collected.
- collectible adjective
- Able to be collected; opposite of uncollectible.
- collect verb
- To gather or obtain payment.
Commonly confused: uncollectibility or uncollectable?
uncollectibility vs uncollectable
A less common variant spelling of uncollectible; both mean 'not able to be collected'.
Practice
The auditors were worried about the _____ of the company's overseas debts.
Choose one answer.
The sentence needs a noun to follow 'the' and function as the subject of 'was worried about'. 'Uncollectibility' is the noun meaning the state of being impossible to collect. 'Uncollectible' is an adjective, 'uncollected' is an adjective meaning not yet collected, and 'collectibility' is the opposite noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “uncollectibility”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.