insure

US/ɪnˈʃʊɚ/

verbB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,075 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: insured, insuring, insures

To insure something is to arrange payment in advance against a possible loss. You pay a little each month so that a disaster does not ruin you.

You insure a car, a house or a phone; you insure it against fire or theft; and you insure it for an amount. The company is the insurer, the contract is a policy, and the payment is a premium. Keep it clear of ensure, which means to make certain, and of assure, which is what you do to a worried person. British English confuses matters further by using assurance for life cover.

Definitions of insure

1verbinsureTo arrange financial protection against loss or damage.B1+
“The van is insured for business use.”

Where it comes from

Insure and ensure are one word split in two. Both descend from Anglo-Norman enseurer, to make sure, and insure took on the narrower business of making safe against loss by premiums in 1635.

Anglo-Norman
enseurer
Middle English
ensuren
English, today
insure

Built from

asseürer · Old French — to assure

c, as a variant of Middle English ensuren (from Anglo-Norman enseurer, itself from Old French - en- + seür, probably influenced by asseürer (“to assure”)); took on its particular sense of "make safe against loss by payment of premiums" in 1635, replacing assure. a doublet of ensure.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Word Building

First appears in chapter 10 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

insure in the wild

Furthermore, it usually involves something in which the insured has an insurable interest established by ownership, possession, or pre-existing relationship.
Insurance
Cost savings to the self-insured entity are usually realised through the elimination of the carrying-costs that commercial insurers are obliged to pass on to their insurance consumers.
Self-insurance
In some cases organizations need to apply for special licenses to self-insure certain risks, such as employee benefits insurance.
Self-insurance
For this scenario, agents (homeowners, workers, firms, investors, etc.) will lack the instruments to insure against future risks such as employment status, health, labor income, prices, among others.
Incomplete markets
Policy holders must apply a credit limit on each of their buyers for the sales to that buyer to be insured.
Trade credit insurance

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the enseurer family

insurance

insure — used about once every 3,111 pages · #8,075 · point at the bar for the others

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