pension
Americannoun
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a fixed amount, other than wages, paid at regular intervals to a person or to the person's surviving dependents in consideration of past services, age, merit, poverty, injury or loss sustained, etc..
a retirement pension.
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an allowance, annuity, or subsidy.
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(in France and elsewhere in continental Europe)
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a boardinghouse or small hotel.
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room and board.
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verb (used with object)
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to grant or pay a pension to.
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to cause to retire on a pension (usually followed byoff ).
noun
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a relatively cheap boarding house
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another name for full board
noun
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a regular payment made by the state to people over a certain age to enable them to subsist without having to work
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a regular payment made by an employer to former employees after they retire
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a regular payment made to a retired person as the result of his or her contributions to a personal pension scheme
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any regular payment made on charitable grounds, by way of patronage, or in recognition of merit, service, etc
a pension paid to a disabled soldier
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonpensionableadjective
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pensionableadjective
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pensionlessadjective
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unpensionableadjective
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unpensionedadjective
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unpensioningadjective
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well-pensionedadjective
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pensionablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pensionsimple
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pensionssimple
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have pensionedperfect
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has pensionedperfect
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am pensioningprogressive
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are pensioningprogressive
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is pensioningprogressive
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have been pensioningperfect progressive
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has been pensioningperfect progressive
Past
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pensionedsimple
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had pensionedperfect
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was pensioningprogressive
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were pensioningprogressive
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had been pensioningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pension
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French pensïon, from Latin pēnsiōn-, stem of pēnsiō “measured weight,” hence, “payment, rent,” from pēns(us) “weighed” (past participle of pendere “to hang, weigh out, pay by weight”) + -iō -ion
Explanation
A pension is a regular payment, usually from a company you worked for, that allows you to survive without working after you retire. In used to be common for someone to spend their entire career at one company, and then retire at 65 and receive a pension: regular payments of enough money to live on in old age. Nowadays, not that many jobs offer pensions, and it's hard for companies that do to pay for them, which is why you're likely to hear this word when people are arguing about budget cuts. It's also a verb: if you pension your employee, you give them a pension. How nice of you!
Vocabulary lists containing pension
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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This Week in Words: February 16 - 22, 2019
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The Great Depression and The New Deal
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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:
"They don't have any job security. They don't have benefits like pension because they are not permanent employees."
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
One positive lesson of “super” is that pension systems in which the private sector plays an ever-growing role can help address the threat of insolvency confronting U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
This helps explain why Australian government pension expenditures are projected to decline from 2.6% of gross domestic product today to 2.1% by 2060.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
That parent will also get National Insurance credits towards their state pension.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
But there was so much on the Maple Hill side, it was really ridiculous—like “Live cheaper in the country” and “The Chrises” and “Could live on government pension without Mother working.”
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
Pioneered in the 1980s and 1990s by free-market-friendly Labor governments, “super,” as Australians call it, shifts much of the burden of funding pensions from the state to the private sector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
My husband and I both receive government pensions.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Long-shot goals, like restoring auto worker pensions, could be in play in the next round of talks in 2028, said Art Wheaton, a labor expert at Cornell University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Given that your pensions and disability payments will drop to around $30,000 a year after your death, it makes sense to maximize your Social Security benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
For many, it also meant giving up their shops, their businesses, their pensions, and their life savings.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
It is the reason why James Anderson was pensioned off in 2024.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2025
The family is now composed of the same sort of banal attention-seekers and time-servers as the rest of Europe’s pensioned aristocracy, which includes Facebook-addled coup plotters and Epstein island guests of honor.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2023
The airline struggled with a 51-day pilots' strike between September and November 2017, grounding half its fleet and resulting in dozens of pilots being fired, while others resigned or were pensioned off.
From Reuters ● Nov. 25, 2021
It’s also an issue in the United States, although a lot of independent groups and regulators put forth measures to find homes for retired and pensioned horses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2020
“Not that it need come to that,” Mr. Owen blurted, meaning Tansy might marry and be saved before she was pensioned off.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Downpour and Inferno are states that people drive between pensioning their senators and whitegoods.
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2022
The period-of-presumption idea was done away with entirely, the Government pensioning War veterans frankly on their civil disability.
From Time Magazine Archive
To become eligible for pensioning, an Episcopal minister must be 68, retired or disabled.
From Time Magazine Archive
When Iowa sent a pension to Joseph Newt Finney, she joined no less than 26 other States, Alaska and Hawaii, in pensioning her aged.*
From Time Magazine Archive
At this very time Spain was pensioning men in high station there, including General Wilkinson, commanding our force at New Orleans.
From History of the United States, Volume 2 by Andrews, Elisha Benjamin
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.
