compensation
Americannoun
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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
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.
For Riley, his pay in 2024 marks just a slight increase from the 2023 season, when USC paid Riley more than $11.5 million in total compensation.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
The London club have been exploring their legal options and expect a compensation package to be paid, though it remains unclear both how much that might be, or when it will be resolved.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
By the end, the headline was not Iran, the economy or Trump’s proposed compensation fund.
From Salon • Jun. 7, 2026
But last month, flush from a six-figure Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL, compensation package, Payne returned to Florida to attend the Jones High prom with his old classmates.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
The district had given us a small amount of money as compensation for his death, enough to cover one month of grieving at which time my mother would be expected to get a job.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
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.
