Meaning & use

usurious

adjective·Advanced

Charging an illegally or unethically high rate of interest on a loan.

See it in a sentence

The loan shark's usurious rates trapped borrowers in debt for years.

Regulators shut down the lender after discovering its usurious contracts with desperate clients.

A note on using this word

Usurious is a strong, disapproving word, almost always used to criticize lending practices as unfair or predatory.

Words with a similar meaning

extortionateexploitative

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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