indebted

adjective

in·​debt·​ed in-ˈde-təd How to pronounce indebted (audio)
Synonyms of indebted
1
: owing gratitude or recognition to another : beholden
I'm indebted to you for your help.
2
: owing money

Synonyms of indebted

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of indebted in a Sentence

thereafter forever felt indebted to the producer for giving her her lucky break
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
An arrest alone does not repair the harm if the rightful owner remains displaced, indebted or trapped in court. — Landon Dais, New York Daily News, 15 Aug. 2026 No franchise on this list is more indebted to a single auteur (Wes Craven) and a single actor (Robert Englund), who turned the saga of Freddy Krueger into something uniquely horrifying. — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 8 Aug. 2026 That could put stress on the heavily indebted tech infrastructure builders known as neoclouds, as well as the larger cloud computing hyperscalers. — Tobias Burns, CNBC, 26 July 2026 Other pieces are more indebted to various forms of trance music found around the globe. — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 13 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for indebted

Word History

Etymology

Middle English indetted, from Anglo-French endetté, past participle of endetter to run into debt, from en- + dette debt

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of indebted was in the 14th century

Rhymes for indebted

See All Rhymes for indebted

Browse Nearby Words

indebt
indebted
indebtedness
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Indebted.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indebted. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

indebted

adjective
in·​debt·​ed in-ˈdet-əd How to pronounce indebted (audio)
: being in debt : owing something (as money or gratitude)
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All