entitlement
Americannoun
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the act of giving, or the state of having, a title, right, or claim to something.
She supported legislation to improve the lot of the elderly, including the entitlement of senior citizens to vote by absentee ballot.
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a provision, amount, etc., to which one is entitled; a right.
A good education is the moral entitlement of every child.
Temporary teachers receive most of the entitlements of permanent teachers, including annual salary, on a prorated basis.
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a government program, such as Social Security or unemployment insurance, that provides a benefit to eligible participants, or the benefit provided by such a program.
Eligibility for this insurance program will be affected if there is also a Medicare entitlement.
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the unjustified assumption that one has a right to certain advantages, preferential treatment, etc..
"Their sense of entitlement—I don't want to call it arrogance—makes dealing with some people difficult,'' said the senator.
Etymology
Origin of entitlement
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.
On the spending side, they will likely need to revisit the structure of major entitlement programs.
From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026
West, one of the grande dames of the movement, got her start at Seattle alt-weekly the Stranger and spent years excoriating fatphobia, online misogyny, and male entitlement for the ur-millennial-feminist site Jezebel.
From Slate • Mar. 31, 2026
But Chip’s need for connection and reflexive sense of entitlement proves disastrous — the story isn’t going the way he wanted, and Groff allows it to collapse on him.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026
As the government seeks to control rapidly rising costs, this will mean a smaller proportion of children will retain their legal entitlement to support.
From BBC • Feb. 20, 2026
When he returned home, he resumed college at Temple University and then went through its law school, with every penny of his higher education paid by that great entitlement program called the GI Bill.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
