Meaning & use
commercial insurance
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Insurance that protects a business against losses such as damage, theft or legal claims.
Grammar: Uncountable: they bought commercial insurance, not a commercial insurance.
Patterns
- commercial insurance for something
The shop owner bought commercial insurance for fire and theft.
Most landlords require tenants to carry commercial insurance.
Commercial insurance covered the cost of the broken window.
Common combinations
- buy commercial insurance
- New firms buy commercial insurance.
- commercial insurance policy
- Her commercial insurance policy covers floods.
- commercial insurance coverage
- The commercial insurance coverage is broad.
- commercial insurance premium
- The commercial insurance premium rose.
- commercial insurance broker
- A commercial insurance broker advised us.
Synonyms and how they differ
- business insurance
- Business insurance is the plainer everyday term for the same thing.
- liability cover
- Liability cover is only one part of commercial insurance, protecting against claims.
- corporate insurance
- Corporate insurance suggests large companies, not small shops.
Opposites
Word family
- insurance noun
- protection against loss for a fee
- insure verb
- to buy protection against loss
- insurer noun
- a company that sells insurance
- commercial adjective
- relating to business
Commonly confused: commercial insurance or assurance?
commercial insurance vs assurance
In British English, assurance often means cover for events certain to happen, like life, while insurance is for possible loss.
Practice
A bakery owner buys ______ to protect against fire damage to the shop.
Choose one answer.
Commercial insurance protects a business. The other types protect people or trips.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “commercial insurance”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.