Insure

//ɪnˈʃɔː(ɹ)// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To provide for compensation if some specified risk occurs. Often agreed by policy (contract) to offer financial compensation in case of an accident, theft or other undesirable event. transitive

    "I'm not insured against burglary."

  2. 2
    be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something wordnet
  3. 3
    To deal in such contracts; subscribe to a policy of insurance intransitive
  4. 4
    make certain of wordnet
  5. 5
    Alternative spelling of ensure; to make sure or certain of; guarantee. US, alt-of, alternative, dated, transitive

    "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    protect by insurance wordnet
  2. 7
    take out insurance for wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
guaranteeassurecoversecureunderwritearm

Example

More examples

"Insure your house against fire."

Etymology

First attested in c. 1440, as a variant of Middle English ensuren (from Anglo-Norman enseurer, itself from en- + seür (“sure”), probably influenced by Old French asseürer (“to assure”)); took on its particular sense of "make safe against loss by payment of premiums" in 1635, replacing assure. Doublet of ensure.

Related phrases

self-insuremake sure

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.