Microfinance
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Finance that is provided to unemployed or low-income people or groups. uncountable, usually
"Microfinance, once a relative cottage industry championed by antipoverty activists and development wonks, is on the verge of a revolution, with billions of dollars from big banks, private-equity shops and pension funds pouring in."
Example
More examples"Late last month, 135 civil society organizations urged the government to ensure that microfinance institutions immediately suspend all loan repayments and interest accrual for at least three months."
Etymology
From micro- + finance. Coined by German sociologist and economist Hans Dieter Seibel in 1990.
More for "microfinance"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.