national debt

1. 1.

   the debt of the national government (as distinguished from the debts of individuals and businesses and political subdivisions)

   Broaderdebt

Questions about national debt

What does national debt mean?

national debt means "the debt of the national government (as distinguished from the debts of individuals and businesses and political subdivisions)".

Is national debt a common word?

national debt is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.