life insurance

noun

: insurance providing for payment of a stipulated sum to a designated beneficiary upon death of the insured

Examples of life insurance in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Postal workers can take advantage of federal health insurance plans with dental and vision coverage, as well as long-term care, life insurance and federal retirement benefits. —Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 4 May 2026

Another option is to purchase a life insurance policy with a long-term care rider, which permits you to use some or all of the death benefit to cover long-term care. —Daniel De Visé, USA Today, 4 May 2026

Nearly a third of the life insurance industry’s $6 trillion in assets has been allocated to private credit, a Moody’s analysis found last year. —Tobias Burns, CNBC, 2 May 2026

Often times there are provisions in a divorce agreement about insufficiency of life insurance including a claim against his estate. —Wendy Hickey, Boston Herald, 26 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1781, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for life insurance

• assurance
• durance
• reassurance
• reinsurance

Kids Definition

life insurance

noun

: insurance providing for a specified sum to be paid when the insured person dies

Legal Definition

life insurance

noun

: insurance providing for the payment of money to a designated beneficiary upon the death of the insured see also endowment insurance

— ordinary life insurance

: whole life insurance in this entry

— straight life insurance

: whole life insurance in this entry

— term life insurance

: life insurance that provides coverage for a set term and does not accumulate cash surrender value

— universal life insurance

: life insurance characterized by flexible premiums, benefits, and payment schedules, by the indexing of cash value to money market interest rates, and by the periodic reporting of current value and company costs charged to the account

— universal variable life insurance

: variable universal life insurance in this entry

— variable life insurance

: life insurance in which all or part of the cash value of the policy is located in a tax-deferred investment portfolio with risk assumed by the insured for investment losses compare variable annuity at annuity

— variable universal life insurance

: universal life insurance that includes the investment component of variable life insurance

called also universal variable life insurance

— whole life insurance

: life insurance that provides coverage over the life of the insured and that can be sold for surrender value or used as the basis of low-interest loans

called also ordinary life insurance, straight life insurance