Compensation

How to spell compensation

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce compensation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compensation mean?

1. nounMoney or other benefit given to make up for loss, injury, or work done.
2. nounThe act of offsetting or counterbalancing one effect with another.

Compensation in a sentence

• The airline offered compensation for the cancelled flight.

• The strong sales were a welcome compensation for the slow spring.

• Injured workers can claim compensation through the insurance scheme.

• As compensation for the long commute, the firm allowed remote work on Fridays.

Where does compensation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin compensatio, a noun meaning 'a weighing of one thing against another', built on the verb compensare, 'to balance out' or 'to counterbalance'. That verb joined com-, meaning 'together', with pensare, 'to weigh', itself a frequentative of pendere, 'to weigh' or 'to pay', since the Romans literally weighed out metal as money. English took the word in through Old French in the late 1300s, at first for the idea of offsetting one thing with another, and the financial sense of 'payment given to make up for a loss or service' grew naturally from that. The same pendere root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'pension', 'expense', 'pendant', and 'ponder', all of which trace back to weighing or balancing. Remembering that buried 'pens' (to weigh, to pay) helps fix the spelling, since the tricky part is the unstressed middle vowel that sounds like a vague 'uh'.

How the word is built

• com- (together, with)
• pens (from pendere: to weigh, to pay)
• -ation (noun of action/result)