bankruptcy

bankruptcy — noun

1. an officially recognised condition where a company or individual cannot pay back

1.nounB2
Definition

an officially recognised condition where a company or individual cannot pay back what they owe, and a court takes charge of dividing whatever is left among the people they owe money to.

Example

After three bad harvests, Mr. Lin's small bakery was forced into bankruptcy.

force into bankruptcy

The airline filed for bankruptcy last March and stopped selling tickets the next day.

file for bankruptcy

Common collocations
  • file for bankruptcy
  • declare bankruptcy
  • face bankruptcy
  • go into bankruptcy
  • personal bankruptcy
  • corporate bankruptcy
  • verge of bankruptcy
Synonyms
  • insolvency

    more technical; refers to the financial state of being unable to pay debts, with or without a court process

  • liquidation

    the actual process of selling a failing company's assets to pay creditors

  • ruin

    less formal and more emotional; covers wider personal and financial collapse

Antonyms
  • solvency

    the state of being able to pay all debts when they are due

Grammar Patterns

file for bankruptcy

declare bankruptcy

Usage Note

Often appears with verbs like 'file for', 'declare', 'face', or 'be forced into'. Subject is typically a company, bank, or individual debtor; the term is the legal label for the condition, not the act of going broke in casual speech.

Common Mistakes

The shop did bankruptcy last year.
The shop went into bankruptcy last year.
use 'go into', 'file for', or 'declare', not 'do bankruptcy'.
He bankruptcied his company.
He drove his company into bankruptcy.
bankruptcy is a noun, not a verb.

2. a complete absence of a valued quality such as honesty, fresh thinking, or moral

2.nounC1
Definition

a complete absence of a valued quality such as honesty, fresh thinking, or moral standards, often used to criticise a person, group, or system.

Example

Senator Lopez condemned the leaked memo as showing the moral bankruptcy of the previous administration.

moral bankruptcy

The same tired slogans every week revealed the intellectual bankruptcy of the campaign team.

intellectual bankruptcy of [group]

Common collocations
  • moral bankruptcy
  • intellectual bankruptcy
  • spiritual bankruptcy
  • creative bankruptcy
  • bankruptcy of ideas
  • bankruptcy of imagination
Synonyms
  • void

    stresses the empty space left by what is missing; often more poetic

  • dearth

    milder; suggests serious shortage rather than total absence

  • vacuum

    metaphorical absence, often of leadership or authority

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

bankruptcy of [abstract noun]

moral / intellectual bankruptcy

Usage Note

Almost always preceded by an abstract modifier (moral, intellectual, spiritual, creative) or followed by 'of + abstract noun'. Distinguish from sense 1: this sense never refers to money — 'moral bankruptcy' describes a lack of values, not finances.

Common Mistakes

The team showed bankruptcy at the meeting.
The team showed a bankruptcy of ideas at the meeting.
this sense needs an abstract qualifier such as 'of ideas', 'moral', or 'creative'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe trouble paying debts, but they sit at different points along the process. 'Insolvency' is the underlying financial state — assets are not enough to cover debts — and may exist quietly before any court is involved. 'Bankruptcy' is the formal legal status that follows when a court accepts that the debtor cannot pay; it is the term most often used in news headlines and learner contexts. 'Liquidation' refers specifically to selling off a failing company's assets so creditors can be paid, often as a step inside a bankruptcy case. 'Default' is narrower still: missing a particular payment, such as a loan instalment, without yet entering any legal procedure. So a borrower may default on a loan, slide into insolvency, then file for bankruptcy, after which the company goes through liquidation.

bankruptcy ↗insolvencyliquidationdefault ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • bankruptcy court
  • bankruptcy law
  • bankruptcy filing
  • bankruptcy proceedings
  • bankruptcy protection
  • bankruptcy case

Adverbs

  • technically bankrupt
  • virtually bankrupt

Phrases

  • file for bankruptcy
  • declare bankruptcy
  • emerge from bankruptcy
  • on the verge of bankruptcy
  • brink of bankruptcy

Prepositions

  • in bankruptcy
  • into bankruptcy
  • from bankruptcy
  • of bankruptcy

Etymology

ItalianFrenchLatinEnglish

Built from 'bankrupt' plus the noun-forming ending '-cy'. 'Bankrupt' came into English in the 16th century from Italian 'banca rotta', literally a 'broken bench': in medieval Italian markets, a money-changer who could no longer pay was said to have his trading bench broken, signalling that he was out of business. English borrowed the idea via French and Latin, and added '-cy' to form a noun for the condition itself. The figurative use, as in 'moral bankruptcy', appeared later, extending the financial image to any kind of total emptiness.