A yield curve, or term structure, describes the relationship between debt securities’ remaining time to maturity and their yields. A yield curve describes yields across maturities; it is broader than a single two-maturity spread and should not be reduced to one term-spread number.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionPhrases & Idioms
Quick answer
A yield curve, or term structure, describes the relationship between debt securities’ remaining time to maturity and their yields.
Key details
Canonical Formyield curve
Core MeaningA yield curve, or term structure, describes the relationship between debt securities’ remaining time to maturity and their yields.
Further guidance
History Boundary
Current authoritative financial meaning is published without claiming an exact inventor, coinage date, or absolute first use.
Meaning
A yield curve, or term structure, describes the relationship between debt securities’ remaining time to maturity and their yields.
Usage Boundary
A yield curve describes yields across maturities; it is broader than a single two-maturity spread and should not be reduced to one term-spread number.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
Yield-curve flattening is a change in the curve’s slope that narrows differences between longer- and shorter-maturity yields. Flattening describes a reduction in slope and is not identical to inversion; a curve can flatten while longer-maturity yields remain above shorter-maturity yields.
An inverted yield curve is a yield-curve configuration in which longer-maturity Treasury yields are below shorter-maturity yields. Yield-curve inversion describes the ordering or slope of yields across maturities; it is not, by itself, a universal guarantee of a recession or a substitute for specifying which maturities and curve are being compared.
Yield-curve steepening is a change in the curve’s slope that makes differences between longer- and shorter-maturity yields more pronounced. Steepening describes a change in slope, not a universal direction for every yield; short and long rates can move in different ways while the curve steepens.
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