premium

Alternative forms

• præmium (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin praemium (“prize”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiː.miː.əm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

premium (not comparable)

1. Superior in quality; higher in price or value.
2. (automotive) High-end; belonging to the market segment between mid-market and luxury.

   Coordinate terms: economy, luxury

Noun

premium (plural premiums or premia)

1. A prize or award.
2. Something offered at a reduced price as an inducement to buy something else.
3. A bonus paid in addition to normal payments.
   • 2009 July 19, Ariel Sabar, “A Time to Put Aside the Armor”, in The New York Times‎:

     At first I wrote it off to the simpler protocols of grandparenthood, with its premium on uncomplicated gestures of generosity and love.

4. (insurance) The amount to be paid for an insurance policy.
   • 1951, State Farm Life Insurance Company, Life Agents Handbook, page 62:

     (Of course, if an insured dies during the grace period, the unpaid annual premium or instalment thereof is past due and therefore is deducted from the death benefit.)

   • 1986, Michael P. Claudon, World Debt Crisis: International Lending on Trial, page 184:

     Notice that these premia would exist even in a world of risk-neutral lenders if there were identifiable classes of nonrepaying borrowers.

   • 1999, Missouri Law Review, volume 64, page 770:

     When a process of proverse selection has run its course, a disproportionate number of high-risk insureds will remain in the former classification, which will prompt an increase in the premiums charged in order to cover the higher losses.

5. An unusually high value.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

6. (finance) The amount by which a security's value exceeds its face value.

   Antonym: discount

Derived terms

Further reading

• Premium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Premium in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Noun

premium m (plural premiums)

1. premium

Alternative forms

• Premium

Etymology

English premium

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʁeːmi̯ʊm/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

premium (indeclinable, predicative only)

1. (advertising, often in compounds) premium

   Synonym: hochwertig

Further reading

• “premium” in Duden online
• “premium” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache