Legal Dictionary

creditor

Legal Definition of creditor

Noun

  1. A person to whom money, goods or services are owed by the debtor.

Definition of creditor

Etymology

    From Latin crēditor, from crēditum ("loan"), from crēditus, perfect passive participle of crēdō ("lend")

Noun

creditor (plural creditors)

  1. (finance) A person to whom a debt is owed.

Antonyms

Hyponyms

  • debtholder
  • noteholder
  • bondholder
  • general creditor

Anagrams

  • Anagrams of cdeiorrt
  • director

Further reading

A creditor is a party (e.g. person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim to the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. [1] The first party, in general, has provided some property or service to the second party under the assumption (usually enforced by contract) that the second party will return an equivalent property or service. The second party is frequently called a debtor or borrower. The first party is the creditor, which is the lender of property, service or money.

The term creditor is frequently used in the financial world, especially in reference to short term loans, long term bonds, and mortgages. In law, a person who has a money judgment entered in their favor by a court is called a judgement creditor.

The term creditor derives from the notion of credit. In modern America, credit refers to a rating which indicates the likelihood a borrower will pay back his or her loan. In earlier times, credit also referred to reputation or trustworthiness.

References:

  1. Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.



SHARE THIS PAGE

TOP LEGAL TERMS THIS WEEK
1.     lex fori
2.     landed property
3.     lex causae
4.     lex situs
5.     conclusive presumption
6.     AORO
7.     Miranda warning
8.     lex domicilii
9.     lex loci delicti commissi
10.     ownership