Iou

noun, phrase

noun, phrase ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An informal promissory note that is not a negotiable instrument.

    "When David couldn’t afford to match the money in the poker pot, he added an IOU for the remaining amount instead."

  2. 2
    an informal debt instrument; representing ‘I owe you’ wordnet
Phrase
  1. 1
    I owe you.

    "Customarily, if you borrow $10 for lunch from a coworker, writing IOU $10 on a yellow sticky note acts as a legal promissory note that you will repay said amount on payday."

Synonyms

All synonyms
acceptanceacceptance billbank acceptancebank checkbillbill of draft

Example

More examples

"Customarily, if you borrow $10 for lunch from a coworker, writing IOU $10 on a yellow sticky note acts as a legal promissory note that you will repay said amount on payday."

Etymology

From the pronunciation of "I owe you". Attested since at least 1618.

Related phrases

negotiable instrumentpromissory note

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.