Standard Lemma guide

prepayment

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P R IY0 P EY1 M AH0 N T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A payment in advance.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A cost paid in a fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the cost is recognized

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: accounting, business, finance

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

payment in advance

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: payment, defrayal, defrayment

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh2- Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *préh2i? Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae-lbor. Middle English pre- English pre- English payment English prepayment From pre- + payment.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 預付 /预付 (yùfù) — payment in advance
  • Chinese Mandarin: 先付 (xiānfù) — payment in advance
  • Finnish: ennakkomaksu — payment in advance
  • Finnish: ennakko — payment in advance
  • French: prépaiement — payment in advance
  • German: Vorauszahlung — payment in advance
  • Greek: προκαταβολή (prokatavolí) — payment in advance
  • Greek: προπληρωμή (propliromí) — payment in advance
  • Irish: réamhíocaíocht — payment in advance
  • Irish: íocaíocht roimh ré — payment in advance
  • Italian: anticipo — payment in advance
  • Japanese: 元払い (motobarai) — payment in advance
  • Norwegian Bokmål: forhåndsbetaling — payment in advance
  • Polish: przedpłata — payment in advance
  • Russian: предопла́та (predopláta) — payment in advance
  • Russian: ава́нс (aváns) — payment in advance
  • Finnish: ennakkomaksu — A cost paid in a fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the cost is recognized
  • Finnish: siirtosaaminen — A cost paid in a fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the cost is recognized
Real reading context

prepayment in complete knowledge articles