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defalcation.

The act of cancelling part of a claim by deducting a smaller claim which the claimant owes to the defendant.

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˌdɛfəɫˈkeɪʃən]UK
  1. The act of cancelling part of a claim by deducting a smaller claim which the claimant owes to the defendant.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Embezzlement.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Late 15th century, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātiōnem, accusative singular of dēfalcātiō (literally “cutting off, lopping off with a sickle”), nominalization of dēfalcō, from Latin dē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”). By surface analysis, defalcate + -ion (“the act of”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.