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Refund vs Compensation - What's the difference?

refund | compensation |

As nouns the difference between refund and compensation

is that refund is an amount of money returned while compensation is the act or principle of compensating.

As a verb refund

is to return (money) to (someone); to reimburse.

refund

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To return (money) to (someone); to reimburse.
    • A governor, that had pillaged the people, was sentenced to refund what he had wrongfully taken. — L'Estrange.
    If you find this computer for sale anywhere at a lower price, we'll refund you the difference.
  • (obsolete) To supply again with funds.
    • to refund a railroad loan
  • (obsolete, rare) To pour back.
    • Were the humours of the eye tinctured with any colour, they would refund that colour upon the object. — Ray.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An amount of money returned.
    • If the camera is faulty, you can return it to the store where you bought it for a refund.

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms

    compensation

    English

    (wikipedia compensation)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act or principle of compensating.
    • (Emerson)
  • That which constitutes, or is regarded as, an equivalent; that which makes good the lack or variation of something else; that which compensates for loss or privation; amends; remuneration; recompense.
  • * Hallam
    • The parliament which dissolved the monastic foundations vouchsafed not a word toward securing the slightest compensation to the dispossessed owners.
  • * Burke
    • No pecuniary compensation can possibly reward them.
  • The extinction of debts of which two persons are reciprocally debtors by the credits of which they are reciprocally creditors; the payment of a debt by a credit of equal amount; a set-off.
  • A recompense or reward for some loss or service.
  • An equivalent stipulated for in contracts for the sale of real estate, in which it is customary to provide that errors in description, etc., shall not avoid, but shall be the subject of compensation.
  • The relationship between air temperature outside a building and a calculated target temperature for provision of air or water to contained rooms or spaces for the purpose of efficient heating. In building control systems the compensation curve is defined to a compensator for this purpose.

    • Synonyms

    * (act of compensating) restitution * (recompense or reward) restitution

    Derived terms

    * overcompensation