Pay back or payback?
pay back is a verb meaning “To pay (a debt or the lender) so as to provide the entire amount of money owed”; payback is a noun meaning “An act of revenge”. Use pay back as a verb and payback as a noun. pay back is written as two words and payback as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between pay back and payback?
| pay back | payback | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | noun |
| Meaning | To pay (a debt or the lender) so as to provide the entire amount of money owed To avenge, to exact revenge | An act of revenge A benefit, reward, a form of recompense |
| Example | Douglas: Roy, give me £20. Roy: What? Douglas: Give me £20. I'll pay you back | They beat us last year, so this year's win was payback |
| Forms | none | paybacks |
| Pronunciation | /peɪ bæk/ | /ˈpeɪbæk/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 1.9 times per million words |
Sources: pay back and payback in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pay back and payback
pay back
- 1
To pay (a debt or the lender) so as to provide the entire amount of money owed
Douglas: Roy, give me £20. Roy: What? Douglas: Give me £20. I'll pay you back
- 2
To avenge, to exact revenge
He paid her back with interest, avenging his father's murder with nine degrees of reprisal
payback
- 1
An act of revenge
They beat us last year, so this year's win was payback
- 2
A benefit, reward, a form of recompense
- 3
A return on investment
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pay back or payback?
pay back is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; payback 1.9 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).