compensatory

[ kuhm-pen-suh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee ]

adjective

1. serving to compensate, as for loss, lack, or injury.
2. countercyclical.

Other Words From

• non·compen·sative adjective
• noncom·pensa·tory adjective
• recom·pensa·tory adjective
• sub·compen·sative adjective
• subcom·pensa·tory adjective
• un·compen·sative adjective
• uncom·pensa·tory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of compensatory¹

First recorded in 1595–1605; compensate + -ory ¹

Example Sentences

Internally, LinkedIn has achieved a notable level of compensatory fairness among its employees.

From Digiday

Another possibility is that injured runners developed compensatory movement patterns that strengthened uninjured muscles while covering for the injured ones.

From Outside Online

He missed 23 games from February to April with a hamstring strain, the sort of compensatory ailment that can follow a serious leg injury.

From FiveThirtyEight

The plaintiffs in the current case are seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys’ fees.

From Washington Post

If a single team loses minority candidates hired as both a head coach and GM elsewhere, it would receive third-round compensatory choices in the following three NFL drafts.

From Washington Post

But there is a compensatory antidote: trade in the caffeine for cannabis.

From The Daily Beast

Behind the impersonality of money lies an intensely personal, often compensatory compulsion.

From The Daily Beast

Nor do I care for those compensatory honors that my position and family influence might have secured for me.

From Project Gutenberg

Since confederation it comes from compensatory subsidies, and the two last named sources.

From Project Gutenberg

Hence the agitation for compensatory clauses, enabling the tenant to safely invest all the capital he can procure in the soil.

From Project Gutenberg

One moral we have already deduced, in considering the circular or compensatory character of every human action.

From Project Gutenberg

Here however, (though this is not probable,) there may arise some compensatory cases of subscribers altogether new.

From Project Gutenberg