compensation
Americannoun
-
the act or state of compensating, as by rewarding someone for service or by making up for someone's loss, damage, or injury by giving the injured party an appropriate benefit.
-
the state of being compensated or rewarded in this way.
-
something given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, loss, injury, suffering, lack, etc.; indemnity.
The insurance company paid him $2000 as compensation for the loss of his car.
- Synonyms:
- indemnification, satisfaction, requital, reparation, amends, payment, recompense
-
Biology. the improvement of any defect by the excessive development or action of another structure or organ of the same structure.
-
Psychology. a mechanism by which an individual attempts to make up for some real or imagined deficiency of personality or behavior by developing or stressing another aspect of the personality or by substituting a different form of behavior.
noun
-
the act or process of making amends for something
-
something given as reparation for loss, injury, etc; indemnity
-
the automatic movements made by the body to maintain balance
-
the attempt to conceal or offset one's shortcomings by the exaggerated exhibition of qualities regarded as desirable
-
biology abnormal growth and increase in size in one organ in response to the removal or inactivation of another
Other Word Forms
- compensational adjective
- noncompensation noun
- precompensation noun
- procompensation adjective
- subcompensation noun
- subcompensational adjective
Etymology
Origin of compensation
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English compensacioun, from Latin compēnsātiōn-, stem of compēnsātiō “a balancing”; equivalent to compensate + -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Lacks' family never received any compensation, and have fought for years to get justice for the "stolen" cells.
From BBC
She is one of 25 women who have received compensation following operations carried out by a single surgeon in north Wales.
From BBC
His "primary objective" in suing Greenpeace, he said in interviews, was not just financial compensation but to "send a message."
From Barron's
The pair charged their clients fees for all the extra paperwork and sometimes took one-third of a client’s refund payment as compensation, according to the indictment.
From MarketWatch
Supporters of the new law say clearer rules and limits on compensation will curb what they call an “industry of lawsuits,” encouraging more companies to start operations in the country.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
