repay
/ɹiˈpeɪ/verb
repay is spelled R-E-P-A-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, repay means “Synonym of pay back in all senses” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in repay?
| Letters | 5: R-E-P-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is repay?
Repay appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce repay?
- /ɹiˈpeɪ/
Repay has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-repay.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with repay?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as repay.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: payer, peary, rapey.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of repay
- repays present, singular, he/she/it
- repaying participle, present
- repaid participle, past
- repayed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does repay mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
Synonym of pay back in all senses.
I finally repaid my student loans, just before sending my kids to college.
- 2
To make worthwhile; to yield a result worth the effort; to pay off.
- 3
To give in return; requite.
- 4
To pay (cover with tar, pitch, etc.) again.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does repay come from?
From Old French repaier (“to pay back”), from re- + paiier (“to pay”), from Latin pācāre (“to settle, to make peaceful”), from pāx (“peace”) + -ō (forming verbs). Equivalent to re- + pay. Cognate with repacify and French repayer (“to pay again”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).