English Explanatory Dictionary

owe

English dictionary entry

Meanings

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

Pronunciation

/əʊ/ ō /oʊ/ en-us-owe.ogg

Word forms

owe owes owing owed ought own

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”).

Derived words

how much do I owe you owe it to oneself owe out ower owe someone one the world owes one a living to what do I owe the pleasure
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on O Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary