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restitution

UK/ˌɹɛstɪˈtjuːʃən/US/ˌɹɛstɪˈtuʃən/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,339 of 15,258leans writtenformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: restitutions

Restitution is the giving back of what was taken. Not compensation — the actual thing, returned.

Law makes the distinction carefully, since damages pay you for a loss and restitution restores what you had. It is the word used in the long arguments about objects taken during colonial rule and held in European museums, where restitution means sending them home. Criminal courts can order it too. It is formal throughout, and the everyday phrase for the same idea is putting things right.

Definitions of restitution

  1. 1nounrestitutionThe return of something taken to its rightful owner.C1

    “The family have campaigned for restitution for forty years.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    restitutio

  2. Old French

    restitucion

  3. English, today

    restitution

From Old French restitucion, from Latin restitutio. by surface analysis, restitute + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 28 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

restitution in the wild

  • In contrast with damages (the law of compensation), restitution is a claim or remedy requiring a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained.

    Restitution and unjust enrichment

  • The basic equation, sometimes known as Newton's restitution equation, was developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687.

    Coefficient of restitution

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.