uncollectible

Meaning

1. 1adjectivebefore a nounfinance

   Describing money owed that is unlikely ever to be paid, so the creditor cannot recover it.

   Grammar: Appears before a noun or after be: uncollectible debt, the debt is uncollectible.

   Patterns

   • uncollectible debt
   • uncollectible accounts

   The bank wrote off the uncollectible loans at the end of the year.

   After the customer went bankrupt, the invoice was marked uncollectible.

   Uncollectible accounts reduce a company's reported profit.

Common combinations

uncollectible debt

The firm set aside money to cover uncollectible debt.

uncollectible accounts

Uncollectible accounts rose during the recession.

deem uncollectible

The debt was deemed uncollectible.

write off as uncollectible

They wrote off the invoice as uncollectible.

uncollectible taxes

Some uncollectible taxes were forgiven.

Synonyms and how they differ

irrecoverable

Irrecoverable is broader and can describe anything that cannot be recovered, while uncollectible is specific to money owed.

bad

Bad is used informally in the phrase 'bad debt', while uncollectible describes the status.

unrecoverable

Unrecoverable also applies to data or losses and is less tied to accounting.

uncollectable

Uncollectable is an equally accepted spelling, more common in British English.

Opposites

Word family

collect verb

to gather or obtain, such as a payment

collectible adjective

able to be collected as payment, or valuable to collectors

collection noun

the act of obtaining payments, or a group of items

collector noun

a person who collects debts or items

Commonly confused: uncollectible or uncollectable?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “uncollectible”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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