compensation
Americannoun
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compensations
plural
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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.
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the state of being compensated or rewarded in this way.
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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
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Biology. the improvement of any defect by the excessive development or action of another structure or organ of the same structure.
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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
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the act or process of making amends for something
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something given as reparation for loss, injury, etc; indemnity
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the automatic movements made by the body to maintain balance
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the attempt to conceal or offset one's shortcomings by the exaggerated exhibition of qualities regarded as desirable
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biology abnormal growth and increase in size in one organ in response to the removal or inactivation of another
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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noncompensationnoun
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precompensationnoun
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subcompensationnoun
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compensationaladjective
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procompensationadjective
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subcompensationaladjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of compensation
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English compensacioun, from Latin compēnsātiōn-, stem of compēnsātiō “a balancing”; equivalent to compensate + -ion
Explanation
Compensation means "making up for something." When a restaurant offers you a free dessert as compensation for messing up your dinner order, the hope is that you will leave happy (and refrain from writing a negative review online). Compensation can also be money, a payment meant to give someone a fair exchange for their effort and output. In fact, the word comes from the Latin word compensat-, meaning "weighed against." If you receive fair compensation for your work, the money is equal to your time and effort. In other words, the scale is balanced.
Vocabulary lists containing compensation
The Bill of Rights
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"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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"The Monkey's Paw," Vocabulary from the short story
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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.
See Examples For:
Prof Shaw thinks potential benefits include better long-term planning around rolling-stock and timetables, and the removal of "the compensation merry-go-round", where train companies and Network Rail argue about whose fault a delay was.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
It requires adequate staffing, good managers, training, compensation and enough breathing room for employees to exercise judgment.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Those include minimum wage laws, workers’ compensation and collective-bargaining rights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
The $108 million in compensation accounts for both material and moral damages.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
The Aesir and Skadi bargained for compensation, back and forth.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
But all the compensations, all the progress anyway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
Edinburgh Employment Tribunal ruled that PC Jones should be awarded compensations of £24,800 and PC Tunnock should receive £23,824.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2025
Pratt and Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX, booked a $2.48 billion operating loss in the reported quarter related to engine recalls and compensations to airlines.
From Reuters ● Oct. 24, 2023
Earlier in the day, Mohsin Naqvi, the top official in Punjab province, where Jaranwala is located, announced the compensations on X, previously known as Twitter.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 21, 2023
For rabbits, winter remains what it was for men in the middle ages—hard, but bearable by the resourceful and not altogether without compensations.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
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.
