different between liability vs assurance

English

Etymology

From liable +? -ity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la???b?l?ti/
• Hyphenation: li?abil?ity

Noun

liability (countable and uncountable, plural liabilities)

1. An obligation, debt or responsibility owed to someone.
   • 1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw

     "I was to say that Maw and Meggins disclaim all responsibility," continued the other. "They admit no liability at all, but in consideration of your son's services they wish to present you with a certain sum as compensation."

2. A handicap that holds something back, a drawback, someone or something that is a burden to whoever is required to take care of them; an individual or action that exposes others to greater risk.
   • 2016 January 31, "Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?," Vanity Fair (retrieved 21 January 2016):

     Asked if at some point Huma becomes a liability to Hillary, the long-term Clinton insider replies, “It’s like anything else. I don’t think so, but you know I don’t have any idea. Hillary is very loyal, but she’s obviously pragmatic.”

3. The likelihood of something happening.
4. The condition of being susceptible to something.

Antonyms

• asset

Derived terms

• enterprise liability
• limited liability
• limited liability company
• secondary liability
• strict liability
• vicarious liability

Translations

Anagrams

• alibility

English

Alternative forms

• assuraunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English assuraunce, from Old French asseürance, from asseürer; as if assure +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??????ns/, /?????ns/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???????ns/, /???????ns/
• Rhymes: -????ns
• Hyphenation: as?sur?ance

Noun

assurance (countable and uncountable, plural assurances)

1. The act of assuring; a declaration tending to inspire full confidence; that which is designed to give confidence.

   • Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
2. The state of being assured; firm persuasion; full confidence or trust; freedom from doubt; certainty.

   • Let us draw with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

3. Firmness of mind; undoubting, steadiness; intrepidity; courage; confidence; self-reliance.

   • the affairs of the Tarkish camp together with assurance

   • Conversation, when they come into the world, soon gives them a becoming assurance

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] His air, of self-confident assurance, seemed that of a man well used to having his own way.

4. Excess of boldness; impudence; audacity

   his assurance is intolerable
5. (obsolete) Betrothal; affiance.
6. (insurance) Insurance; a contract for the payment of a sum on occasion of a certain event, as loss or death. Assurance is used in relation to life contingencies, and insurance in relation to other contingencies. It is called temporary assurance, in the time within which the contingent event must happen is limited.
7. (law) Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property; a conveyance; a deed.
   • c. 1766, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

     the legal evidences of the conveyance of property are called the common assurances of the kingdom.

8. (theology) Subjective certainty of one's salvation.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• assurance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• anacruses

French

Etymology

From assurer +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.sy.???s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

assurance f (plural assurances)

1. insurance
2. assurance

Related terms

• assurer
• assureur

Further reading

• “assurance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).