noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An act of revenge. uncountable, usually

   "They beat us last year, so this year's win was payback."

2. 2
   the act of taking revenge (harming someone in retaliation for something harmful that they have done) especially in the next life wordnet
3. 3
   A benefit, reward, a form of recompense. countable, usually

   "They identify three tangible paybacks."

4. 4
   financial return or reward (especially returns equal to the initial investment) wordnet
5. 5
   A return on investment. uncountable, usually

Show 1 more definition

6. 6
   A refund; reimbursement. rare, uncountable, usually

Verb

1. 1
   Misspelling of pay back. alt-of, misspelling

Synonyms

All synonyms

repaymentgetbackjust desertsjust desertspoetic justicepoetic justice

Example

More examples

"Sami began planning his payback."

Etymology

Deverbal from pay back.

Related phrases

community paybackenergy payback timehave it comingpay backreturn on investment

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