Table of Contents
Definition Debt Bondage
(noun) When an individual pledges to act as a servant in exchange for a loan or passage and then are not paid enough to earn back their freedom.
Debt Bondage Pronunciation
Syllabification: debt bond·age
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /dEt bAHn-dij/
- British English – /dEt bOn-dij/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /dɛt ˈbɑndɪʤ/
- British English – /dɛt ˈbɒndɪʤ/
Usage Notes
- Plural: dept bondages
- Also called:
- debt servitude
- debt slavery
- bonded labor
- Variant spelling: debt-bondage
Additional Information
Related Terms
- capital flight
- class
- communism
- economic
- economism
- economy
- means of production
- mode of production
- relations of production
- socialism
- wealth
Works Consulted
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Debt Bondage
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “debt bondage.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved February 9, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/debt-bondage/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
debt bondage. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/debt-bondage/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “debt bondage.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed February 9, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/debt-bondage/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“debt bondage.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/debt-bondage/>.