mortgage

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA ^(key): /ˈmɔː.ɡɪdʒ/
• (US) IPA ^(key): /ˈmɔr.ɡɪdʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mort‧gage

Noun

Singular mortgage

Plural mortgages

1. (countable) A mortgage is a loan for the purpose of paying for a house, apartment, building, etc.

   For five-year adjustable-rate mortgages, interest rates rose to 5.58 percent.

   They can't refinance because the mortgage is higher than the real value of their home.

   Unlike traditional 30-year fixed mortgages, these loans are often adjustable.

   Credit card, auto loan, and mortgage lenders, along with bankers, are being much more careful about their borrowers.

   By November she had missed two of the monthly mortgage payments on the three-bedroom home.

Synonyms

• debt
• loan

Verb

Plain form mortgage

Third-person singular mortgages

Past tense mortgaged

Past participle mortgaged

Present participle mortgaging

1. (transitive) If you mortgage your home, you borrow money and promise to give up your home if you can't pay back the money.

   Henderson's parents mortgaged their house in Cuthbert to buy a piano for the front parlor.

2. (transitive) If you mortgage your future, you enjoy something now even though it will cause problems in the future.

   We're mortgaging our children's future instead of investing in it.

Related words

• unmortgaged
• mortgagee