liabilities

Debts on a company's books are sorted by when they fall due. Current liabilities, such as unpaid supplier bills and wages, must be met soon; long-term liabilities, such as mortgages and bonds, stretch further ahead. The split explains how a firm can look rich on paper yet still struggle to pay the bills that come due first.

The y of liability turns to -ies after the consonant, the regular pattern that also gives abilities and possibilities. The plural can mean debts someone has taken on or drawbacks that hold someone back. The second pairs naturally with its opposite, as when a committee weighs a candidate's strengths and liabilities.

Here the word names a whole side of the page, reaching further than the debts a company owes. In the traditional two-sided layout every claim on the business sits on the right, a creditor's or an owner's, so owners' capital is listed there too; that is why the side must total exactly what the assets on the left do.