compensation - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

Compensation means "making up for a something." When a restaurant offers you a free dessert as compensation for messing up your dinner order, the hope is you will leave happy and come back again.

Compensation can also be money, a payment meant to give someone a fair exchange for their effort and output. In fact, the word comes from the Latin word compensat-, meaning "weighed against." If you receive fair compensation for your work, the money is equal to your time and effort. In other words, the scale is balanced.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: compensation

1	n	the act of compensating for service or loss or injury
2	n	(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: compensation

1

n the act of compensating for service or loss or injury

Synonyms:: recompense

Types:: indemnification
an act of compensation for actual loss or damage or for trouble and annoyance

Type of:: correction, rectification
the act of offering an improvement to replace a mistake; setting right

n something (such as money) given or received as payment or reparation (as for a service or loss or injury)

Types:: show 17 types...; hide 17 types...; overcompensation
excessive compensation; workmen's compensation
compensation for death or injury suffered by a worker in the course of his employment; reimbursement
compensation paid (to someone) for damages or losses or money already spent etc.; emolument
compensation received by virtue of holding an office or having employment (usually in the form of wages or fees); blood money
compensation paid to the family of a murdered person; amends, damages, indemnification, indemnity, redress, restitution
a sum of money paid in compensation for loss or injury; counterbalance, offset
a compensating equivalent; reparation
(usually plural) compensation exacted from a defeated nation by the victors; reparation
compensation (given or received) for an insult or injury; relief
(law) redress awarded by a court; actual damages, compensatory damages, general damages
(law) compensation for losses that can readily be proven to have occurred and for which the injured party has the right to be compensated; nominal damages
(law) a trivial sum (usually $1.00) awarded as recognition that a legal injury was sustained (as for technical violations of a contract); exemplary damages, punitive damages, smart money
(law) compensation in excess of actual damages (a form of punishment awarded in cases of malicious or willful misconduct); atonement, expiation, satisfaction
compensation for a wrong; allowance
a sum granted as reimbursement for expenses; breakage
reimbursement for goods damaged while in transit or in use; costs
pecuniary reimbursement to the winning party for the expenses of litigation

Type of:: recompense
payment or reward (as for service rendered)

2

n (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors

Types:: overcompensation
(psychiatry) an attempt to overcome a real or imagined defect or unwanted trait by overly exaggerating its opposite

Type of:: defence, defence mechanism, defence reaction, defense, defense mechanism, defense reaction
(psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires