Definition of: insurance

(in·shr′əns) noun
1. An act, business, or system by which pecuniary indemnity is guaranteed by one party (as a company) to another party in certain contingencies, as of death, accident, damage, disaster, injury, loss, old age, risk, sickness, unemployment, etc., upon specified terms: in Great Britain, often assurance.
2. A contract made under such a system.
3. The consideration paid for insuring; premium.
4. The sum that the insurer has agreed to pay in case of the occurrence of the specified contingency.
5. The act of making safe or secure.
6. Something that provides protection or security.
—accident insurance
A form of insurance covering loss due to accidental personal injury.
—casualty insurance
Insurance of property against loss from accidental causes.
—endowment insurance
A form of life insurance in which the whole amount agreed upon is paid to the insured if he survives beyond a specified date, or to some designated person or his heirs if he dies before that time.
—fire insurance
Insurance covering loss or damage to property by fire or from the efforts to extinguish fire.
—life insurance
Insurance on the life of oneself or another. The first life insurance company established in Great Britain was the “Amicable” in 1706, and the first in America was introduced from England in 1759 as the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund, and established in Philadelphia.
—marine insurance
Insurance which covers loss on ships, cargo, and freight by shipwreck or disaster at sea.
—unemployment insurance
A form of government insurance in which a worker is paid, during an extended period of involuntary unemployment, from a fund contributed to by employers and employees.