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

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

And the figure is now approaching annual spending on internet access and life insurance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

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

They weren’t client files; they were for family, stuff like birth certificates and house insurance and life insurance and repair bills and receipts for major items like our refrigerator and television and washing machine.

From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English

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