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

He claimed that these included S$206,000 in credit card charges, S$129,000 for overseas trips, S$17,000 to engage a fengshui master for her apartment, and S$20,000 to pay for her life insurance premiums.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

I was selling life insurance and annuities in New York, and I was writing funny emails to friends.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Income annuities, by contrast, are relatively straightforward: They act as a kind of life insurance in reverse.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

Miriam Gottfried explains how this once-quiet corner of life insurance has become increasingly popular.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

And not a funny one, but one of the ones about life insurance.

From "Sunny" by Jason Reynolds

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