Tontine

//ˈtɒntaɪn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A form of investment in which, on the death of an investor, his share is divided amongst the other investors.

    "When Joseph Finsbury and his brother Masterman were little lads in white-frilled trousers, their father—a well-to-do merchant in Cheapside—caused them to join a small but rich tontine of seven-and-thirty lives."

  2. 2
    an annuity scheme wherein participants share certain benefits and on the death of any participant their benefits are redistributed among the remaining participants; can run for a fixed period of time or until the death of all but one participant wordnet
  3. 3
    a form of life insurance whereby on the death or default of a participant their share is distributed to the remaining members wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bingodrawingkenorafflesweepsweepstakes

Example

More examples

"Joseph assigned to his nephew his interest in the tontine, already quite a hopeful speculation."

Etymology

From French tontine, named after Lorenzo de Tonti, who introduced the scheme into France in around 1653. Thus, from Tonti + -ine.

More for "tontine"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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