pension
Americannoun
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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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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:
Japan’s $1.8 trillion pension giant might bring money home.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Developing countries like Thailand are aging rapidly before they grow rich, lacking the pension systems and savings found in wealthier nations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Garcia disclosed only a pension, worth $100,001 to $250,000, while Padilla Stout only listed a bank account, a mutual fund and her spouse’s retirement plans.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
It is "good news" for approximately 820,000 retirees, the paper says, as triple lock increases mean the state pension will be taxed from next year for the first time.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
“You wouldn’t take the pension back, would you? If you do, I’ll have no husband.”
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
With your $120,000 pensions and Social Security, you can both live comfortably.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
For years Japan’s pensions and insurers bought U.S. bonds for one reason: They paid more than Japan’s did.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
"I'm from a generation of baby boomers; we have excellent state and work pensions so really it's not much of an impact for me," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
As well as mental health support, guest speakers focus on issues such as military pensions and the impact of the menopause.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
As inflation ate away at their modest government pensions, Elizebeth spent long hours going over their checkbooks, bank records, and tax forms.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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
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
“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
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
To become eligible for pensioning, an Episcopal minister must be 68, retired or disabled.
From Time Magazine Archive
From Berlin they learned that Handsome Adolf himself had suppressed news of the Habicht ultimatum in Germany and was thinking of pensioning or retiring him from his post as "Inspector General for Austria."
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.
