Meaning of credit in English

credit

noun

/ˈkred.ɪt/ us

/ˈkred.ɪt/

credit noun (PRAISE)

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B2 [ U ]

praise, approval, or honour:

get credit for She got no credit for solving the problem.

get the credit I do the work, and you get the credit — how is that fair?

take credit for Her boss took credit for it.

take the credit So many people were involved in this, I can't take all of the credit.

give someone credit for something/doing something I gave him credit for (= thought that he would have) better judgment than he showed.

give someone the credit If a member of my team comes up with a great idea, I'm happy to give them the credit.

to someone's credit

used to say that someone should be praised for something, although there may be other things about them that are not good:

To his credit, he is honest about the problems the business faces.

be a credit to someone/something

to do something that makes a person, group, or organization feel proud or receive praise:

She is a credit to her family.

someone does someone credit

someone has done well or behaved well in a way that means someone connected with them should receive praise:

She does her teachers credit.

something does someone credit

something should cause a person to receive praise:

Their actions do them credit.

all credit to someone

used to show that you think a person deserves a lot of praise for something that they have done:

All credit to her, she did it all herself.

More examplesFewer examples

We only deal with companies that have a good credit record.
He has a good credit history.
The government has imposed a sharp credit squeeze in an attempt to hold down inflation.
We can get a year's interest-free credit on a sofa.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Praising and applauding

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credit noun (MONEY)

B1 [ U ]

a method of paying for goods or services at a later time, usually paying interest as well as the original money:

on credit They decided to buy the car on credit.

interest-free credit The shop was offering six months' interest-free credit on electronic goods.

Compare

debit noun

[ U ]

the fact of being trusted to pay back money that you have borrowed:

I own a home and my credit is good, so why have I been refused a loan?

Banks typically charge customers with bad credit higher interest rates.

Identity thieves can steal your money and ruin your credit.

See also

credit history

credit rating

B1 [ U ]

money in an account:

in credit I was relieved to see from my statement that my account was in credit.

If the cardholder has enough credit in their account to cover the sale, the transaction is authorized.

[ C ]

an amount of money paid into an account:

The refund appeared will appear as a credit on your bill.

I phoned the bank when confusing debits and credits appeared on my bank statement.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Borrowing & lending

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Paying money

Profits & losses

credit noun (COURSE UNIT)

B2 [ C ]

a unit that represents a successfully finished part of an educational course:

Each of these classes is worth three credits.

Synonym

academic credit

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Classes & courses

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credit noun (LIST OF NAMES)

the credits [ plural ]

a list of people who helped to make a film or a television or radio programme, that is shown or announced at the beginning or the end of it:

Everyone in the cinema was in tears by the time the credits rolled.

Idioms

credit where credit is due

have something to your credit

credit

verb

/ˈkred.ɪt/ us

/ˈkred.ɪt/

credit verb (PAY)

[ T ]

to pay money into a bank account:

credit something with something They credited my account with $20 after I pointed out the mistake.

More examplesFewer examples

They've credited my account with another £100.
We'll credit you with the remaining amount next week.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Banks

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credit verb (BELIEVE)

[ T not continuous ]

to believe something that seems unlikely to be true:

He even tried to pretend he was my son - can you credit it?

it is hard to credit It was hard to credit some of the stories we heard about her.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to believe someone or something

believeCan we believe a word of what this man says?
acceptMost people accept what the newspapers say as being correct.
creditUK It’s hard to credit that she’s 87.
swallowI personally find it hard to swallow the official narrative.
buyWhen it comes to global warming, he doesn't buy it, and is out to discredit the whole theory.

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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Believing

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Phrasal verb

credit someone with something

(Definition of credit from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

credit | American Dictionary

credit

noun

/ˈkred·ɪt/

credit noun (PAYMENT LATER)

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[ U ]

a method of buying goods or services that allows you to pay for them in the future:

We bought our sofa on credit.

The bank offers small businesses credit.

credit noun (PRAISE)

[ C/U ]

praise or approval, esp. to recognize achievement:

[ U ] You have to give him credit for being so honest.

[ U ] How can he take credit for work he didn’t do?

credit noun (MONEY AVAILABLE)

[ C/U ]

an amount of money available to you because you paid for something earlier, or a record of this money:

[ C ] We returned the clothes and got a store credit.

[ C/U ]

A credit is also an amount of money you do not have to pay:

[ C ] a tax credit

credit noun (COURSE UNIT)

[ C ]

a unit of measurement of the value contributed by an educational course to a college degree:

Comparative religion is a three-credit course.

Idioms

a credit to someone/something

to someone’s credit

credit

verb [ T ]

/ˈkred·ət/

credit verb [T] (BELIEVE)

to believe or trust something that may not be true:

If you can credit what the doctor says, the illness isn’t serious.

creditable

adjective us

/ˈkred·ət̬·ə·bəl/

She gave a creditable performance of a woman in love.

Phrasal verb

credit someone with something

(Definition of credit from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

credit | Business English

credit

noun

/ˈkredɪt/ us

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[ U ] COMMERCE, FINANCE

a method of paying for goods or services at a later time, usually paying interest as well as the original amount:

give/extend/offer credit to sb U.S. banks are reluctant to extend credit to the troubled nation.

deny/refuse sb credit Have you ever been refused credit?

on credit They've purchased all sorts of leisure equipment on credit.

The card has no annual fee and users get up to eight weeks' interest-free credit.

[ U ] FINANCE

the money lent by financial organizations to companies, governments, people, etc.:

domestic/foreign/international credit The central bank attributed the rise in domestic credit during the period to a rise in private sector credit.

cheap/affordable/easy credit Rising house prices were fueled by easy credit.

Agricultural borrowers are concerned about credit availability as the farm economy weakens.

[ U ] FINANCE

the amount of risk when lending money to a particular person or organization, based on how likely they are to pay it back:

weak/poor/bad credit Too many mortgages had been granted to home buyers with weak credit.

good credit They will let you take the goods and pay later if your credit is good.

[ C ] BANKING

a payment of money into a bank account:

His bank statement shows two credits of $5000 each.

Compare

debit noun

in credit

BANKING UK

if a person or their bank account is in credit, there is money in the account:

As long as you stay in credit, there will be no charges for normal transactions on your account.

[ C ] ACCOUNTING

( abbreviation CR)

an amount recorded on the right side of a company's financial accounts, which shows a decrease in assets or an increase in debt:

The accounting system automatically generates a credit to the account that was debited.

Compare

debit verb

[ C or S ] TAX

an amount by which someone is allowed to reduce the amount of tax they pay, because they have spent money on a particular thing:

He introduced a new tax break in the form of a child-care credit.

See also

tax credit

[ C or U ] ACCOUNTING, COMMERCE

an amount of money that you have available to spend with a store or business, for example, because you returned a product or paid too much for it:

If you are dissatisfied with any item, it may be returned within 14 days for credit, refund, or exchange.

[ U ]

praise for doing something good:

credit for sth The whole team deserves credit for bringing the project in on time.

take (the) credit She felt he had taken the credit for her idea.

Examples of credit

credit

Tax credits have become a convenient vehicle for economic stimulation of targeted sectors and are far more acceptable politically than tax increases.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If they are doing well its own perfor mance should be partly discounted but if they are doing badly it is credited accordingly.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By engaging my commentary, he implicitly credits it as worthy of thoughtful reply.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Perhaps he felt that the allegation would not be credited, but that seems unlikely.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Each query is associated to an initial number of credits defined in the #credits parameter.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The factor income deficit (mainly onerous interests on shortterm credits and to some degree profit remittances) is growing although not alarming so far.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What, however, should people receive tax credits for doing?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Recent reforms to maternity allowances have equally credited in low earners (albeit with different rules).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If funds did not report option weights, then a simple average of crediting rates is reported.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In a pension equity plan, by contrast, there are no interest credits.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreover, sometimes the sources of the recorded vocal sounds are credited in the sleeve notes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A preschool child does not choose to study another language because it would be interesting to do so, or would give her academic credits.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By definition, if one reporter disagrees with another, the same child is credited with different levels of knowledge of particular items.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To be credited with the subject, no constituent other than the subject was necessary.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Even a decision to distrust it can only be taken by reference to a repertoire of experiences that are credited.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of credit

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with credit

credit

These are words often used in combination with credit.

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academic credit

Academic validation would advise on the best way of fulfilling the learning plan and provide the appropriate accreditation so that the staff nurses gain academic credit for their learning.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

agricultural credit

They will also benefit from the help we are giving for agricultural credit.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

cheap credit

Employers have not been enthusiastic because of the loss of the cheap credit source.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with credit

What is the pronunciation of credit?

B2,B1,B1,B2