''collateral'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904152658-00-⌔

collateral - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

collateral (not comparable)

• Parallel, in the same vein, side by side.
  • ✤ Her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) are torn and Vonn has a lateral fracture of the tibial plateau, the upper end of the tibia or shin bone.¹
• Corresponding; accompanying, concomitant.
  • ✤ Yet the attempt may give/Collateral interest to this homely tale.²
• Being aside from the main subject, target, or goal.
  • ✤ Synonyms: tangential, subordinate, ancillary
  • ✤ * collateral damage*
  • ✤ Although not a direct cause, the border skirmish was certainly a collateral incitement for the war.
  • ✤ That he[Atterbury] was altogether in the wrong on the main question, and on all the collateral questions springing out of it, […] is true.³
• (genealogy) Of an indirect ancestral relationship, as opposed to lineal descendency.
  • ✤ a collateral descendant
  • ✤ Uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces are collateral relatives.
  • ✤ The pure blood all descends from five collateral lines called Al-Khamsah (the Cinque).⁴
• (finance) Relating to a collateral in the sense of an obligation or security.
• (finance) Expensive to the extent of being paid through a loan.
• Coming or directed along the side.
  • ✤ * collateral pressure*
  • ✤ * collateral light*⁵
• Acting in an indirect way.
  • ✤ If by direct or by collateral hand
    They find us touched, we will our kingdom give […]
    To you in satisfaction.⁶
• (biology, of a vascular bundle) Having the phloem and xylem adjacent.

Noun

collateral (countable and uncountable, plural collaterals)

• (finance) A security or guarantee (usually an asset) pledged for the repayment of a loan if one cannot procure enough funds to repay.
  • ✤ Synonyms: collateral security, pledge
  • ✤ “The decline in the quality of eligible collateral is a grave problem. The ECB is now buying corporate bonds that are close to junk, and the haircuts can barely deal with a one-notch credit downgrade. The reputational risk of such actions by a central bank would have been unthinkable in the past.”⁷
  • ✤ In colonial times, when land was not worth much and banks didn’t exist, most lending was based on human property. In the early 1700s, slaves were the dominant collateral in South Carolina.⁸
• (now rare, genealogy) A collateral (not linear) family member.
• (anatomy) A branch of a bodily part or system of organs.
  • ✤ Besides the arteries blood streams through numerous veins we call collaterals.
• (marketing) Printed materials or content of electronic media used to enhance sales of products (short form of collateral material).
• (anatomy) A thinner blood vessel providing an alternate route to blood flow in case the main vessel becomes occluded.
• (archaic) A contemporary or rival.
• (video games) An instance of hitting two or more targets, often enemy players, with a single shot, usually when they are lined up behind each other.

Etymology

Recorded since c.1378, from Old French, from Medieval Latin collaterālis, from Latin col- (“together with”) (a form of con-) + the stem of latus (“side”). By surface analysis, col- +‎ lateral.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈlætəɹəl/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ætəɹəl

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

1. 2013 February 6, Jen Christiensen, “Vonn’s injury ‘career-delayer,’ not ‘career ender’”, in CNN ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

2. 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion: ↩

3. 1878, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Francis Atterbury”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

4. 1885, Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume 5: ↩

5. c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]: ↩

6. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]: ↩

7. 2016, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “Euro ‘house of cards’ to collapse, warns ECB prophet”, in The Telegraph ‎${}^{[3]}$: ↩

8. 2019 August 14, Matthew Desmond, “In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism, you have to start on the plantation”, in New York Times ‎${}^{[4]}$: ↩