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debt

debt

26 8.1
Extra work later in a software project caused by quick fixes made earlier
  • noun
  • /dɛt/
  • Jargon
translation icon : deuda técnica
  • Addressing legacy systems often involves paying off accumulated debt from previous design decisions.
  • acknowledges a debt
  • sleep debt
  • intellectual debt

Examples

  • The team realized that their initial shortcuts created technical debt that hindered future progress.

  • He has created much soul debt for himself.

  • At last we can start getting out of debt and concentrating on the future.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Considering this mutual debt, developing countries joining a global climate treaty should get their debt canceled.

    Academic text (2011)
  • In fact, the similarities were substantive, for Wilson, too, owed a debt to pragmatism.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Acknowledging his intellectual debt and gratitude to Ibrahim and Janet, he dedicated the book to them.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Dangarembga, like Fanon, studied medicine and psychology; she acknowledges a debt to him in Nervous Conditions.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Many artists openly acknowledge their debt to others and their practices of imitation, copying, and artistic appropriation.

    Academic text (2013)
  • In software development, ignoring best practices can lead to significant debt that must be addressed later.

Idioms

To serve the punishment for a crime, often by going to prison

Compounds

65 3.7

All the money a country's government owes to others

debt ceiling
  • Formal
42 5.3

The maximum amount of money a government can borrow by law

Money a person owes because they used a credit card to buy things

debt limit
  • Formal
18 3.9

The maximum amount a government can borrow by law

A feeling of thanks that makes you want to repay someone who helped you

public debt
  • Specialized
10 3.9

All the money a government has borrowed

bad debt
  • Specialized
9 4.1

A debt that a person who borrowed money cannot or will not pay back

debt instrument
  • Specialized
1 6.1

A document or digital record, like a bond, that shows someone owes money and when they must pay it back

debt ratio
  • Specialized
1 4.3

The part of a company's assets that comes from borrowed money

1 7.8

A duty to pay after a bet or promise that law does not require

1 6.6

An official limit on how much money a government can borrow

oxygen debt
  • Specialized
1 5.7

A short time after hard exercise when the body lacks oxygen and breathing becomes heavy to recover

debt of nature
  • Archaic
9.9

A certain fact that every living person must die

installment debt
  • Specialized
4.3

Money you pay back in regular fixed payments over time

robo-debt scandal
  • Australian
6.8

Public controversy in Australia about a computer system that wrongly said people owed welfare money

Surface Forms

debt singular
debts plural

Etymology

Technical debt uses the idea of debt as a simple picture: like money debt, taking quick fixes now is like 'borrowing' time and creates work you later 'owe' to make things right. So technical debt means the extra future work and cost that comes from earlier shortcuts.