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There are several variations of the meaning of the word credit, but they all relate to the central concepts of approval, praise, value, or confidence.
Finance
As a financial term, used in such terms as credit card, it refers to the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. Any movement of financial capital is normally quite dependent on credit, which in turn is dependent on the reputation or creditworthiness of the entity which takes responsibility for the funds. See also credit repair.
A similar usage is in commercial trade, where credit is used to refer to the approval for delayed payments for goods purchased.
Credit is denominated by a unit of account. Unlike money (strict definition) credit can not itself act as a unit of account.
Credit is also a traded market. The purest form is the "Credit Default Swap" market which is essentially a traded market in credit insurance. ie a credit default swap represents the price at which two counterparties will exchange this risk - the protection 'seller' takes the risk of default of the credit in return for a payment, commonly denoted in basis points (1/100 of a %) of the notional amount to be referenced, while the protection 'buyer' pays this premium and in the case of default of the underlying (a loan, bond or other receivable), delivers this receivable to the protection seller and receives from the seller the par amount (ie is made whole.)
See also
Accounting
In accounting, credit refers to that part of double entry bookkeeping that mirrors debits.
Science fiction
In numerous examples of science fiction, the word credit is a form of currency.
Non-fiction writing
In non-fiction writing, especially academic works, it is generally considered important to give credit to sources of information and ideas. Failure to do so often gives rise to charges of plagiarism, and "piracy" of intellectual rights such as the right to receive a royalty for having written. In this sense the financial and individual meanings are linked.
Academic papers generally contain a lengthy section of footnotes or citation. Such detailed crediting of sources provides readers with an opportunity to discover more about the cited material. It also provides a check against misquotation, as it's easy for an attributed quote to be checked when the reference is available. All of this is thought to improve integrity of the instructional capital conveyed, which may be quite fragile, and easy to misinterpret or to misapply.
Creative arts
In the creative arts, credits are an acknowledgement of those that participated in the production. They are often shown at the end of movies and on CD jackets. In film, video, television, theater, etc. credits means the list of actors and behind-the-scenes staff that contributed to the production.
See also
Education
In education receiving credit for coursework generally refers to the successful completion of a program of study. This may result in units of "academic credit" being awarded for completion for a single class; accumulation of sufficient units of credit often culminates in a degree or diploma.
The process of transferring units of academic credit between institutions is known as articulation.
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