pension
Americannoun
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pensions
plural
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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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pensions,
present (3rd person singular)
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pensioned,
past participle, past
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pensioning
present participle
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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
-
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:
For companies that still operate old-fashioned pension plans, higher yields mean higher discount rates, which are key to calculating the present value of their liabilities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
There’s a silver lining to rising interest rates and soaring borrowing costs: Corporate pension funds have finally rebounded after years of deep deficits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
"It just seems an awful lot and on a widow's pension, really it doesn't go very far," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Her projected pension will be $180,000 a year, also with a 2% annual COLA.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
“How that is arranged in your family is not for me to say. The pension comes. That is all that concerns this office.”
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
Three men have been jailed over a multi-million pound tree-planting scam that cost nearly 3,000 investors their savings or pensions.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
In the fourth quintile, Social Security is no longer the primary source of income, with income from pensions and retirement savings taking over the lead.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
For the second quintile, reliance on Social Security drops to 64%, with income from pensions and retirement savings taking up some of the burden and some earnings kicking in as well.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
Many Gurkhas disagree and want their pensions increased.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
As inflation ate away at their modest government pensions, Elizebeth spent long hours going over their checkbooks, bank records, and tax forms.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
The following year, four years after the explosion, he was pensioned out of the army and started a university degree in psychology.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2021
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
A horse is pensioned when it is no longer available for breeding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2020
“Maybe it’s time for the whole thing to be pensioned off and rethought.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2017
“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
To become eligible for pensioning, an Episcopal minister must be 68, retired or disabled.
From Time Magazine Archive
The period-of-presumption idea was done away with entirely, the Government pensioning War veterans frankly on their civil disability.
From Time Magazine Archive
No European nation thinks of pensioning an ex-soldier simply because he was drafted to fight for his country.
From Time Magazine Archive
The real reason which makes it absurd to think of preventing theft by pensioning off thieves is this, that there is no limit to the number of thieves.
From Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 2 by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay
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.
