compensation
Americannoun
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the act or state of compensating, as by rewarding someone for service or by making up for someone's loss, damage, or injury by giving the injured party an appropriate benefit.
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the state of being compensated or rewarded in this way.
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something given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, loss, injury, suffering, lack, etc.; indemnity.
The insurance company paid him $2000 as compensation for the loss of his car.
- Synonyms:
- indemnification, satisfaction, requital, reparation, amends, payment, recompense
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Biology. the improvement of any defect by the excessive development or action of another structure or organ of the same structure.
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Psychology. a mechanism by which an individual attempts to make up for some real or imagined deficiency of personality or behavior by developing or stressing another aspect of the personality or by substituting a different form of behavior.
noun
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the act or process of making amends for something
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something given as reparation for loss, injury, etc; indemnity
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the automatic movements made by the body to maintain balance
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the attempt to conceal or offset one's shortcomings by the exaggerated exhibition of qualities regarded as desirable
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biology abnormal growth and increase in size in one organ in response to the removal or inactivation of another
Other Word Forms
- compensational adjective
- noncompensation noun
- precompensation noun
- procompensation adjective
- subcompensation noun
- subcompensational adjective
Etymology
Origin of compensation
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English compensacioun, from Latin compēnsātiōn-, stem of compēnsātiō “a balancing”; equivalent to compensate + -ion
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.
Delinking compensation for PBMs from list prices of prescription drugs would likely save Americans $95.4 billion.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 7, 2026
Keenan argued that workers’ compensation law, which bars employee lawsuits over work-related injuries, also prohibited the child’s claims, because a fetus in an employee’s womb was effectively an employee herself.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
Barshay was behind a push to adopt a more flexible compensation model for partners that makes it easier to lure lucrative hires with outsize offers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026
There were some concessions made to lenders in a scaled-down final compensation plan from the FCA, but lenders are still unpacking the details.
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
The other major impediment, equally daunting as the compensation problem at first glance, even more so upon reflection, was the relocation of the freed slaves.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
