pension

[pen-shuhn, pahn-syawn]

noun

plural

pensions 

1. 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.

2. an allowance, annuity, or subsidy.

3. (in France and elsewhere in continental Europe)

   1. a boardinghouse or small hotel.

   2. room and board.

verb (used with object)

1. to grant or pay a pension to.

2. to cause to retire on a pension (usually followed byoff ).

pension

¹

/ ˈpɛnʃən /

noun

1. a regular payment made by the state to people over a certain age to enable them to subsist without having to work

2. a regular payment made by an employer to former employees after they retire

3. a regular payment made to a retired person as the result of his or her contributions to a personal pension scheme

4. 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

1. (tr) to grant a pension to

pension

²

/ pɑ̃sjɔ̃ /

noun

1. a relatively cheap boarding house

2. another name for full board

pension

1. Payments made to a retired person either by the government or by a former employer.

Other Word Forms

• pensionable adjective
• pensionably adverb
• pensionless adjective
• nonpensionable adjective
• unpensionable adjective
• unpensioned adjective
• unpensioning adjective
• well-pensioned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pension¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of pension¹

C14: via Old French from Latin pēnsiō a payment, from pendere to pay

Origin of pension²

C17: French; extended meaning of pension grant; see _pension ¹

Example Sentences

Many equity investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, are also reluctant to park money in L.A. because the rapidly changing rules make it impossible to predict profits.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“There is no simple answer to how much you can safely ‘spend’ from your pension savings each year.”

Read more on MarketWatch

On the politics front, France’s Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Tuesday announced the suspension of contentious pension reform until the presidential elections in 2027, leading to greater optimism over the government’s stability.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

President Emmanuel Macron’s signature 2023 pension reform had raised the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 and was previously passed without a parliamentary vote, leading to months of protests.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But they've come at a social cost – with large cuts to pensions, education, health, infrastructure, and transport and utilities subsidies among other things.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• allowance 
• annuity 
• grant 
• payment 
• premium 
• retirement account www.thesaurus.com
• reward 
• social security 
• subsidy