pension
Americannoun
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pensions
plural
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a fixed amount, other than wages, paid at regular intervals to a person or to the person's surviving dependents in consideration of past services, age, merit, poverty, injury or loss sustained, etc..
a retirement pension.
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an allowance, annuity, or subsidy.
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(in France and elsewhere in continental Europe)
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a boardinghouse or small hotel.
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room and board.
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verb (used with object)
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pensions,
present (3rd person singular)
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pensioned,
past participle, past
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pensioning
present participle
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to grant or pay a pension to.
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to cause to retire on a pension (usually followed byoff ).
noun
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a relatively cheap boarding house
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another name for full board
noun
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a regular payment made by the state to people over a certain age to enable them to subsist without having to work
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a regular payment made by an employer to former employees after they retire
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a regular payment made to a retired person as the result of his or her contributions to a personal pension scheme
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any regular payment made on charitable grounds, by way of patronage, or in recognition of merit, service, etc
a pension paid to a disabled soldier
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonpensionableadjective
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pensionableadjective
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pensionlessadjective
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unpensionableadjective
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unpensionedadjective
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unpensioningadjective
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well-pensionedadjective
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pensionablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pensionsimple
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pensionssimple
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have pensionedperfect
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has pensionedperfect
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am pensioningprogressive
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are pensioningprogressive
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is pensioningprogressive
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have been pensioningperfect progressive
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has been pensioningperfect progressive
Past
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pensionedsimple
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had pensionedperfect
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was pensioningprogressive
-
were pensioningprogressive
-
had been pensioningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pension
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French pensïon, from Latin pēnsiōn-, stem of pēnsiō “measured weight,” hence, “payment, rent,” from pēns(us) “weighed” (past participle of pendere “to hang, weigh out, pay by weight”) + -iō -ion
Explanation
A pension is a regular payment, usually from a company you worked for, that allows you to survive without working after you retire. In used to be common for someone to spend their entire career at one company, and then retire at 65 and receive a pension: regular payments of enough money to live on in old age. Nowadays, not that many jobs offer pensions, and it's hard for companies that do to pay for them, which is why you're likely to hear this word when people are arguing about budget cuts. It's also a verb: if you pension your employee, you give them a pension. How nice of you!
Vocabulary lists containing pension
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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This Week in Words: February 16 - 22, 2019
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The Great Depression and The New Deal
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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:
She says the pension, Social Security and investments will cover anything that comes up.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
Analysts say structural changes in demand—such as a retreat by once-steady buyers like pension funds and foreign governments—are partly to blame for waning demand for longer-term debt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Hedge funds, which place big bets on markets, move their money far faster than more cautious investors such as insurers and pension funds.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
"So I won't have to put quite so much of my own money in! I want to retire earlier than the state pension age so this will all help."
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
I told her how I had talked with the man in the village about my pension.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
In Finland, depression is the leading individual cause of both extended sick leave and disability pensions.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 9, 2026
“If we don’t do anything, there’s 15 billion more to spend on pensions next year,” Lescure said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
She promised cost savings of 15-20 billion euros within pensions alone by correcting "inefficient and unfair" measures in the current system.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
His parents, both 80 and in excellent health, own their home outright and have about $600,000 in a brokerage account, in addition to pensions and Social Security.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
The President awarded the three detectives the People’s Medal and gave them lifelong pensions.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
This is why James Anderson was pensioned off, why performances in domestic cricket were largely ignored and why parts of the County Championship were turned into an experiment with the Kookaburra ball.
From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2025
The family is now composed of the same sort of banal attention-seekers and time-servers as the rest of Europe’s pensioned aristocracy, which includes Facebook-addled coup plotters and Epstein island guests of honor.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2023
The airline struggled with a 51-day pilots' strike between September and November 2017, grounding half its fleet and resulting in dozens of pilots being fired, while others resigned or were pensioned off.
From Reuters ● Nov. 25, 2021
It’s also an issue in the United States, although a lot of independent groups and regulators put forth measures to find homes for retired and pensioned horses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2020
“Not that it need come to that,” Mr. Owen blurted, meaning Tansy might marry and be saved before she was pensioned off.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Downpour and Inferno are states that people drive between pensioning their senators and whitegoods.
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2022
To become eligible for pensioning, an Episcopal minister must be 68, retired or disabled.
From Time Magazine Archive
No European nation thinks of pensioning an ex-soldier simply because he was drafted to fight for his country.
From Time Magazine Archive
Last month she reached the Department's retiring age, 63, and found that the law made no provision for pensioning a policewoman.
From Time Magazine Archive
She would have wished to pension off that Florence Burton with half her wealth, had such pensioning been possible.
From The Claverings by Anthony Trollope
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.
