v · formal
compensate
UK/ˈkɒmpənseɪt/US/ˈkɑːmpənseɪt/COM·pen·sate
Band 5-6task2speaking
to make up for something bad or to give payment for loss or damage
Examples
“The company compensated employees for overtime work.”
“Higher wages may compensate for the cost of living in big cities.”
“It’s hard to compensate for years of poor schooling in a short time.”
Band 8 sentence
“The government introduced a scheme to compensate farmers for crop failures caused by flooding.”
Collocations
- compensate for
- compensate employees
- partial compensation
Word family
compensation ncompensatory adj
Common mistakes
compensate to someone→compensate someone / compensate for something
Say it for a higher band
5make up for→6compensate→7+compensate for losses
Synonyms
make up for
reimburse
Easily confused
compensate vs reimburse
“The company reimbursed her travel expenses.”
Related words
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In Sublist 9
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