insure

American  

[in-shoor, -shur] / ɪnˈʃʊər, -ˈʃɜr /

verb (used with object)

• insures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• insured,
  past participle,  past
• insuring
  present participle

1. to guarantee against loss or harm.

   Synonyms:

   warrant

2. to secure indemnity to or on, in case of loss, damage, or death.

3. to issue or procure an insurance policy on or for.

4. ensure.

   Synonyms:

   assure

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verb (used without object)

• insures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• insured,
  past participle,  past
• insuring
  present participle

1. to issue or procure an insurance policy.

insure British  

/ ɪnˈʃʊə, -ˈʃɔː /

verb

1. (often foll by against) to guarantee or protect (against risk, loss, etc)

   we insured against disappointment by making an early reservation

2. (often foll by against) to issue (a person) with an insurance policy or take out an insurance policy (on)

   his house was heavily insured against fire

   after all his car accidents the company refuses to insure him again

3. another word (esp US) for ensure ensure

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Usage

What's the difference between insure, ensure, and assure? Insure typically means to guarantee against loss or harm or, more specifically, to cover with insurance. Ensure most commonly means to guarantee or make certain, as in Working hard ensures success. Assure usually means to tell someone something with confidence or to cause someone to know something with certainty—it often means the same thing as reassure. It’s no wonder there’s confusion between the three words—all three are verbs that are based on the Latin root sēcūrus, meaning safe. Making things even more confusing is the fact that ensure and insure can be used interchangeably in most senses. Still, insure is much more commonly used in the context of insurance, like car insurance, health insurance, and homeowner’s insurance. These kinds of insurance insure you—they give you coverage that provides you with compensation in certain cases and situations. Ensure is typically used in a more general way in the context of actions that are done to make sure that something happens or is the case, as in We need to ensure that the meeting starts on time. Assure is always used in the context of communication, especially in situations in which someone is trying to make someone else feel better about something. It’s used in the phrase rest assured. Here’s a quick cheat sheet to remember the most common uses of each word:insure = cover with insuranceensure = make sureassure = reassureHere’s an example of insure, ensure, and assure used correctly in a sentence. Example: She assured me that the company has ensured that every employee has the opportunity to be insured. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between insure, ensure, and assure.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• insurability
  noun
• overinsure
  verb (used with object)
• preinsure
  verb (used with object)
• insurable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• insuring
  present
• insured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• insure
  simple
• insures
  simple
• have insured
  perfect
• has insured
  perfect
• am insuring
  progressive
• are insuring
  progressive
• is insuring
  progressive
• have been insuring
  perfect progressive
• has been insuring
  perfect progressive

Past

• insured
  simple
• had insured
  perfect
• was insuring
  progressive
• were insuring
  progressive
• had been insuring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will insure
  simple
• will have insured
  perfect
• will be insuring
  progressive
• will have been insuring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of insure

1400–50; late Middle English; variant of ensure

Explanation

To insure is to guarantee or protect the monetary value of something with, as you might imagine, insurance. We insure, or protect, our homes and cars and other valuables against loss or damage from accidents by taking out insurance policies. To insure is to pay an insurance company regularly so that if something goes wrong, they’ll help cover the costs. Although it’s certainly reassuring to have insurance, the word insure always has a financial aspect.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

insure insures insured insuring

The government helps private businesses insure against military risks up to nearly $700,000 in the most dangerous regions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara furthered the plan’s growth when he required it to raise the policy limit on homes to $3 million and to insure condominium developments valued at $100 million.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026

The World Bank also has boosted its capability to insure private-sector investors against political and other risks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

Oracle’s five-year credit-default-swap spread — a measure of the cost to insure the company’s debt against default— surged to a high of 219 basis points in late July.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

In the early days it must have seemed as if it was being paid to insure events extremely unlikely to occur, as it was.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Cigna, which owns its own PBM, will automatically make this change for all the customers it fully insures in 2027.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

Department of Housing and Urban Development that insures home loans for lenders.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 12, 2025

So does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, which insures anyone with a U.S. bank account.

From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2025

The need and the opportunity matched up, and Morey’s insurance company still insures Japanese communities in California and Hawaii.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2025

Thus the piece of work is finished without being released from the holding devices, which insures truth while requiring a minimum of attendance.

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Joshua Rose

"Those without experience, who are generally not insured, can try them out on the lake which is likely to cause an accident," he said.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

The agent will sweep idle savings into whatever insured account pays the most.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

As of June 30, the association insured 696,000 properties, with potential losses of $788 billion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026

The Higginbothams’ two dogs, Attie and Rue, were previously insured for $50 a month each.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

The pool-level data told you, for example, that 25 percent of the home loans in some pool were insured, but not which loans—the ones likely to go bad or the ones less likely to.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Furthermore, the cost of insuring high-yield debt in the technology sector, via credit-default swaps, is back at levels from the spring, while investment-grade tech CDS are at their highest since 2023, he notes.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

It is entirely the choice of an individual as to whether it is worth insuring belongings while off at university or college.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

There also has been increasing nervousness about the credit profiles of heavy-spending hyperscalers, where the cost of insuring their debt has been climbing in recent months.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

I was surprised to discover there was no real difference for me between insuring a budget EV and a similarly priced hybrid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

Either piece of news—rising ratings standards or falling house prices—should have disrupted the subprime bond market and caused the price of insuring the bonds to rise.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

• assure
• cover
• guarantee
• hedge
• safeguard
• shield
• underwrite