I always think debt is a loaded term because a lot of people reflexively hate debt. I think viewing it in terms of Accounting's "Liabilities" makes it a lot more clear.

So the basic accounting equation is Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Any increase in liabilities must be balanced with an increase in Assets (you use a credit card to buy a lamp) or a decrease in equity (taking out a predatory payday loan to cover utilities).

The flipside of this is if you increase your liability to gain an asset worth even more, your equity goes up (take out a loan to buy a house that appreciates in value beyond the interest rate). This is what the goal of technical debt should be, increasing the "equity" of the software.