foreclosure

/ˈfɔrˌkloʊʒər/

/fɔˈklʌʊʒə/

Other forms: foreclosures

When a homeowner can't afford to pay her mortgage, she might face foreclosure, which is when a bank repossesses a borrower's house.

A bank most often starts foreclosure proceedings against someone who's taken out a loan to buy a house when that person stops making monthly payments. The agreement a borrower makes when she gets a bank mortgage is that she'll pay a certain amount of money every month, and failing to do it means risking foreclosure. The word foreclosure comes from the Latin words fors, "out," and clore "to shut."

Definitions of foreclosure

1. noun

   the legal proceedings initiated by a creditor to repossess the collateral for loan that is in default
   type of:

   legal proceeding, proceeding, proceedings

   (law) the institution of a sequence of steps by which legal judgments are invoked