A bondholder is a person or company that owns bonds — the records that show a government or a business has borrowed their money and should pay it back with interest. Bondholders are lenders, not owners of the company. Shareholders own a piece of the company and may gain more if it does well; bondholders are mainly promised their interest and their money back. You will meet the word in news about debt, banks, and governments. It is a formal money word, not slang, and it can mean a big bank as easily as one person.