reimbursement
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of reimbursement
Explanation
A reimbursement is a repayment for money you've already spent. When you travel for work, you get a reimbursement for your work-related expenses, like hotel bills and plane tickets, but you'll have to pay for that trip to the circus yourself. Reimbursement comes from the Latin root words re, meaning again; in, meaning into; and bursa, meaning purse. So the word reimbursement literally means in a purse again. After your parents' basement flooded, they paid to repair the damage and then got a reimbursement from the insurance company, so that they could put the money they spent in their purse again.
Vocabulary lists containing reimbursement
This Week In Words: March 21–27, 2020
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 14
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Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish
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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.
McMahon agreed to pay more than $1.7 million in a civil penalty and in reimbursement to WWE, without admitting or denying the agency’s findings.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2026
Meanwhile, the reimbursement architecture makes overmedication practically inevitable.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 10, 2026
Waiting on reimbursement and knowing that if it doesn’t come you’ll have to pay interest is stressful.
From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026
The reimbursement fund was key to ensuring Houston did not lose money when it hosted the Super Bowl.
From Salon • Apr. 30, 2026
In hospitals in which the reimbursement rates for appendectomies ran higher, for instance, the surgeons removed more appendixes.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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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.