Choose the Right Synonym for ensure

ensure, insure, assure, secure mean to make a thing or person sure. ensure, insure, and assure are interchangeable in many contexts where they indicate the making certain or inevitable of an outcome, but ensure may imply a virtual guarantee the government has ensured the safety of the refugees , while insure sometimes stresses the taking of necessary measures beforehand careful planning should insure the success of the party , and assure distinctively implies the removal of doubt and suspense from a person's mind. I assure you that no harm will be done secure implies action taken to guard against attack or loss. sent reinforcements to secure their position

Do you ensure or insure?

There is considerable confusion about whether ensure and insure are distinct words, variants of the same word, or some combination of the two. They are in fact different words, but with sufficient overlap in meaning and form as to create uncertainty as to which should be used when. We define ensure as “to make sure, certain, or safe” and one sense of insure, “to make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions,” is quite similar. But insure has the additional meaning “to provide or obtain insurance on or for,” which is not shared by ensure. Some usage guides recommend using insure in financial contexts (as in “she insured her book collection for a million dollars”) and ensure in the general sense “to make certain” (as in “she ensured that the book collection was packed well”).

Examples of ensure in a Sentence

A combination of … personal courage, dashing leadership from the front, willingness to share the toughest rigours suffered by the ordinary soldiers, and a liberal dose of sheer good fortune ensured his stature as a great general. — Paul Cartledge, History Today, July 2004 Indeed, even though she's been off the mainstream radar for more than a decade, her passionate love for and commitment to rock & roll have ensured that she's managed to make a steady living. — Tom Sinclair, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Nov. 2000 At 20, [Kobe] Bryant is already living the modern American dream, a $70 million man on the NBA's glamour team in the nation's starriest city. His acrobatic moves make him the envy of teenage boys and his good looks and megawatt smile a heartthrob for teenage girls, ensuring his status as one of the NBA's premier pitchmen … — Allison Samuels et al., Newsweek, 31 May 1999 They took steps to ensure the safety of the passengers. regulations that ensure the wholesomeness of our food

Recent Examples on the Web Experts in the field of low emitting technologies should be consulted on a consistent basis to ensure technical solutions are obtainable. — Baltimore Sun, 17 May 2022 The threat has led the grid operators to push to keep certain plants online as last-resort measures meant to ensure there are adequate electricity supplies. — Katherine Blunt, WSJ, 16 May 2022 Wipe knife clean with a towel to ensure your cuts are clean. — Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 May 2022 Portland is enacting new policies to ensure homeless individuals are aware of impending sweeps and can retrieve their possessions in response to a lawsuit filed last year. — oregonlive, 10 May 2022 Its knobbier tires may dull its ultimate dynamic performance a bit, but the wide-ranging enhancements made to the entire Grand Cherokee lineup ensure that its on-road manners and general civility are thoroughly agreeable. — Dan Edmunds, Car and Driver, 9 May 2022 All of Honest Paws’ cat CBD products are lab tested by third parties to ensure that these effects are genuine. — The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 May 2022 After that, the state review board will look over results and conduct random hand counts to ensure results are accurate. — Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News, 7 May 2022 The Ukrainian military returned fire from artillery positions in locations in and around the city that were staggered to ensure some are out of range of their Russian counterparts. — New York Times, 6 May 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ensure.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.