premium

adjective

1. 1

   Superior in quality; higher in price or value.

2. 2

   High-end; belonging to the market segment between mid-market and luxury.

noun

1. 1

   A prize or award.

2. 2

   Something offered at a reduced price as an inducement to buy something else.

3. 3

   A bonus paid in addition to normal payments.

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

4. 4

   The amount to be paid for an insurance policy.

   (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.)

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

   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. 5

   An unusually high value.

6. 6

   The amount by which a security's value exceeds its face value.

Forms

plural

premiums, premia