Owe

//oʊ// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone. ditransitive

    "We owe it to our children to make our nation a better place to live in the future."

  2. 2
    be in debt wordnet
  3. 3
    To have debt; to be in debt. intransitive
  4. 4
    be obliged to pay or repay wordnet
  5. 5
    To have as a cause; used with to. transitive

    "The record owes its success to the outstanding guitar solos."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    be indebted to, in an abstract or intellectual sense wordnet

Example

More examples

"You owe me an apology for that."

Etymology

From Middle English owen, from Old English āgan, from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“to own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂óyḱe (“to possess, own”), reduplicated stative of *h₂eyḱ- (“to own”). See also own, ought. Cognate with Sanskrit ईष्टे (īṣṭe, “to own, possess”).

Related phrases

how much do I owe youowe it to oneselfowe outowe someone onethe world owes one a livingto what do I owe the pleasuregiving backin debtminus moneymoney debtmoney duemoney promised

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