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
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were pensioningprogressive
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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:
In 2020, McClatchy went to court to restructure its finances, arguing it couldn’t meet its debt payments and pension obligations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Don’t miss: I’m a single 58-year-old veteran in California with $1.5 million and a VA pension.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
BBC Scotland understands Petrie's conviction is likely to have an impact on his pension.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
That same year, United terminated its pension plan, making financial planning a more important component of their work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Our last interaction, at the pension bureau, had ended so awkwardly—I’d told him I didn’t want to talk about Luc and then hurried off, inventing an errand before he could follow me.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Yet scholars deem Baldwin to have displayed many admirable leadership qualities—magnanimity, political astuteness, trustworthiness—and he was successful by his own lights, having passed reforms in housing and pensions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Earlier in July, the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank suggested that the triple lock should be scrapped as part of a wider pensions overhaul.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
As pensions became scarce, Americans were forced to save for their own retirements — and many faltered.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
The savings, pensions and retirement income specialist posted a strong set of results, with operating profit ahead of consensus, supported by strong growth in assets under administration, the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
“They get holidays, don’t they? And — and sick leave, and pensions, and everything?”
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Due to a deteriorating psychiatric condition, Ms Murray was pensioned off from the civil service in August 2019.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2022
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
A horse is pensioned when it is no longer available for breeding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2020
“Maybe it’s time for the whole thing to be pensioned off and rethought.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2017
“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
When Iowa sent a pension to Joseph Newt Finney, she joined no less than 26 other States, Alaska and Hawaii, in pensioning her aged.*
From Time Magazine Archive
More important, he ruled that pensioning railway employes had nothing to do with regulating interstate commerce.
From Time Magazine Archive
As to the plan of pensioning the clergy, Monsignore Brancadoro points out the dangers to which its adoption would expose them.
From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, November 1864 by
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.
