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English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of insurance in English

insurance
noun
uk
/ɪnˈʃɔː.rəns, ɪnˈʃʊə.rəns/ us
/ɪnˈʃɝː.əns/
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B2 [ U ]
an agreement in which you pay a company money and they pay your costs if you have an accident, injury, etc.:
The insurance doesn't cover you for (= include) household items.
car insurance
travel insurance
take out insurance I'll need to take out extra car insurance for another driver.
insurance claim In the past 10 years, natural disasters caused £105 billion in insurance claims.
claim on the insurance When my bike was stolen, I claimed on the insurance.
See also
comprehensive insurance
health insurance
life insurance
National Insurance
social insurance
term insurance
third-party insurance
Compare
assurance (INSURANCE) UK
[ C or U ]
something that protects against the possible damaging effects of something:
insurance against Households are stockpiling food as insurance against price rises.
insurance policy Many people are applying for overseas passports as an insurance policy in case of future chaos.
Owning gold was seen as an insurance against an unknown future.
More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Insurance
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
insurance
adjective [ before noun ]
mainly US
uk/ɪnˈʃɔː.rəns/ /ɪnˈʃʊə.rəns/ us
/ɪnˈʃɝː.əns/
In sport, an insurance run, point, goal, etc. is one that you score when you already have a small lead to make it more difficult for the other team to catch up:
Kelly scored a huge insurance goal to put the Puffins up by 2, with 3 minutes left.
They might regret not being able to score an insurance run in that inning.
More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Sports & games generally
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(Definition of insurance from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

insurance | American Dictionary

insurance
noun [ U ]
us
/ɪnˈʃʊər·əns/
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the agreement in which you pay a company money and the company pays the cost if you have an accident, injury, or loss:
fire/health/life insurance
(Definition of insurance from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

insurance | Business English

insurance
noun
uk
/ɪnˈʃʊərəns/ us
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[ C or U ]   INSURANCE
an agreement in which you pay a company money, either in one payment or in regular payments, and they pay your costs, for example, if you lose or damage something, or have an accident, injury, etc.:
car/holiday/home/health, etc. insurance
an insurance plan/policy
to buy/sell insurance
insurance contributions/payments/premiums
insurance against sth You can take out insurance against employee injury.
offer/provide/refuse insurance Have you ever been refused car insurance in the past?
arrange/obtain/take out insurance You must make sure you take out insurance on the contents of your house.
have insurance Ensure you have sufficient insurance to cover the cost of replacing your valuables.
be covered by (the) insurance Unfortunately, stolen personal belongings are not covered by the insurance.
claim on the/your insurance I claimed on the insurance for the damage to the furniture.
insurance pays for sth/covers sb/sth This insurance covers the cost of their mortgage but they are considering more life cover.
Most insurances won't cover you if you take part in any dangerous sporting activities.
[ U ]   INSURANCE
the business of selling insurance:
He's worked in insurance for over 20 years.
the insurance industry
an insurance company
[ U ]   INSURANCE
money that is paid to an insurance company:
They ask for 8% extra from customers who pay insurance by direct debit instead of as a lump sum.
[ U ]   INSURANCE
money that is paid by an insurance company:
I had to cancel the trip, but I got back nearly $1000 in insurance.
[ U or plural ]   STOCK MARKET
shares in insurance companies:
Insurances were given a new lease of life as the market's strength helped to allay solvency margin fears.
See also
accident insurance
agreed value insurance
all-loss
all-risks
annuity insurance
automobile insurance
aviation insurance
blanket insurance
block insurance
buildings and contents insurance
business interruption
business liability insurance
business life and health insurance
car insurance
casualty insurance
comprehensive insurance
consumer credit insurance
contingency insurance
credit insurance
deposit insurance
disability insurance
double insurance
engineering insurance
export insurance
fidelity insurance
fire insurance
floating policy
flood insurance
general insurance
group insurance
health insurance
home insurance
homeowner's insurance
household insurance
income insurance
income protection insurance
industrial injuries insurance
liability insurance
life insurance
marine insurance
medical insurance
mortgage indemnity insurance
mortgage protection insurance
motor insurance
national insurance
open insurance
property and liability insurance
self-insurance
social insurance
term insurance
third party, fire and theft
travel insurance
unemployment insurance
valued insurance
whole-of-life
(Definition of insurance from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of insurance

insurance
On the one hand, payout per dollar of premium might be reduced if insurance companies believe that wealthier retirees will live longer.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The history of the relationship between insurance and civil society, as usually told, is an anticlimactic narrative.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
But there is always the pain and the loss that the calculating tables of insurance companies are not able to express, calculate, or compensate for.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
A portfolio effect tends to increase the forest cover, while an insurance effect tends to reduce it.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Thus, informed speculation concerning the outcome of the equal antecedent-risk insurance mechanism would serve as the guideline for evaluating the justice of communal medical provision.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Unlike most social programs, government health insurance involves the purchase of services from a clearly defined and often extremely powerful profession.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Unlike old age or unemployment insurance, workers' compensation provided not just income support but also medical benefits.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Insurance for non-occupational disabilities, by contrast, had no established network of interests; such insurance was virtually non-existent in the private sector.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In the first subsection, we discuss the historical context for adoption of workers' compensation insurance in the early twentieth century.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The 70-year old pensioner has to accept substantial probabilities of capital exhaustion within his lifetime relying on an insurance equivalent fund solution.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Moreover, and more damagingly, he has established no grounds for preferring the hypothetical insurance scheme to the talent auction.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The private sector scheme is managed by private pension institutions : insurance companies, corporate pension funds, industry-wide pension funds, and other statutory pension providers.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
However, the price of insurance for consumers has not decreased.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
As an economic history of fire insurance it is indeed likely to be the definitive overall account for many years to come.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This situation changed only in 1967, when separated trust funds were created for health and old age insurance.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with insurance

insurance

These are words often used in combination with insurance.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

adequate insurance
I cannot stress too strongly the importance of intending travellers making adequate insurance arrangements.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
compulsory insurance
With these two assumptions in place, the non-paternalistic argument for compulsory insurance proceeds as follows.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
crop insurance
They also make a case for income guarantee crop insurance programs and federal cost-share programs that could help farmers' transition to lower chemical use.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with insurance
What is the pronunciation of insurance?
 

Translations of insurance

in Chinese (Traditional)
保險…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
保险…
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in Spanish
seguro, seguro [masculine, singular]…
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in Portuguese
seguro, seguro [masculine], garantia [feminine]…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Telugu
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
विमा…
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保険, 保険（ほけん）, 保険業（ほけんぎょう）…
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sigorta…
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assurance [feminine], garantie [feminine], (d’)assurance(s)…
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assegurança…
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verzekering…
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நீங்கள் ஒரு நிறுவனத்திற்கு பணம் செலுத்தும் ஒரு ஒப்பந்தம் மற்றும் உங்களுக்கு விபத்து, காயம் போன்றவை ஏற்பட்டால் அவர்கள் அதற்க்காக உங்களின் செலவுகளை செலுத்துவார்கள்…
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बीमा…
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વીમા…
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forsikring, forsikrings-…
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försäkring…
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insurans…
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die Versicherung, Versicherungs-……
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forsikring [masculine], forsikring, trygd…
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بیمہ…
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страхування…
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బీమా/ మీరు ఒక కంపెనీ కి డబ్బు చెల్లించేలా, మీకు ఏదైనా ప్రమాదం, గాయపడడం వంటివి జరిగితే మీ ఖర్చులను వాళ్లు చెల్లించేలా చేసుకునే ఒప్పందం…
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বীমা…
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pojištění, pojišťovací…
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asuransi…
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การประกัน…
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tiền bảo hiểm…
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ubezpieczenie…
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보험…
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assicurazione…
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insurance adjuster
insurance against something
insurance agent
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