Remit means to send something, usually a payment, or to cancel a debt or punishment; as a noun it means a person's area of responsibility. Permit means to allow something to happen; as a noun it's a document granting permission. They share a Latin root but point in different directions: remit sends something away, permit lets something through.
The core difference
Remit is about sending or forgiving; permit is about allowing.
- remit — send money as payment, or forgive a debt or obligation: Please remit payment within thirty days of the invoice date.
- permit — allow something to happen or authorise it: Her visa permits her to work in the country for a year.
How to tell them apart
Both words come from Latin verbs built on mittere, "to send" — remit is literally "send back", and permit is "send through". That's a useful memory hook: remit sends money back to whoever is owed it, while permit sends a request through to approval.
The confusion tends to show up in business writing, where "remit" (send payment) gets mixed up with "permit" (allow). It also has a second meaning worth knowing: as a noun, someone's remit is their area of responsibility, as in "that falls outside the committee's remit" — nothing to do with money at all.
