owe

Pronunciation: /əʊ/

The English word “owe” has 3 meanings listed here.

verb

To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
To have debt; to be in debt.
To have as a cause; used with to.

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”).

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More English words

Owaraha
oware
Owasco
owd
owe it to oneself
owe out
owe someone one
owed

About this dictionary

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.