life insurance

American

noun

insurance providing for payment of a sum of money to a named beneficiary upon the death of the policyholder or to the policyholder if still living after reaching a specified age.

life insurance British

noun

another name for life assurance

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of life insurance

First recorded in 1800–10

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:

life insurance

The green goblin fronts a metal band, sells life insurance by day and performs comedy by night.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

We found the best term life insurance options by analyzing rates, coverage features and more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

Find insight on the retirement income market, life insurance providers, UBS Group and more in the latest Market Talks covering Financial Services.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Or can we simply use the transfer-on-death deeds for the house and car, and use the life insurance to pay for funeral costs?

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 27, 2026

He told me about his will, his life insurance policy, all of those horrible businesslike things that feel so inappropriate to think about when someone has died.”

From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023