Obligations, or assets, owed by one party (the debtor) to a second party (the creditor). Debt is usually granted with expected repayment – in most cases the repayment of the original sum, plus interest.
As some companies used debt as part of their corporate finance strategy, it is also a way of using anticipated future purchasing power in the present before it been earned.
Debt is the collective term for various fixed income instruments which obligate the issuer to repay the bondholder.