See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com. noun. 1. a written promise to pay a specified sum of money to a designated person or to his or her order, or to the bearer of the note, at a fixed time or on demand. 2. a written promise to do or provide something, usually presented as a gift and claimable when or however the recipient chooses.
DEFINITION of 'Duration'. A measure of the sensitivity of the price (the value of principal) of a fixed-income investment to a change in interest rates. Duration is expressed as a number of years. Rising interest rates mean falling bond prices, while declining interest rates mean rising bond prices.
Duration is how long something lasts, from beginning to end. A duration might be long, such as the duration of a lecture series, or short, as the duration of a party. The noun duration has come to mean the length of time one thing takes to be completed. The duration of something might be known or not â in past times, the unknown length of time the current war would last was called the duration.