Meaning & use
non-life
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounbusinessfinance
Relating to insurance that covers property, cars, or accidents rather than people's lives.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: non-life insurance, non-life business. It is not normally used after a verb.
Patterns
- non-life insurance
- non-life insurer
- non-life business
She works for a large non-life insurer that covers homes and cars.
Non-life insurance usually pays for damage to property, not for a person's death.
The company split its life and non-life operations into two divisions.
noununcountablebusinessfinance
The part of an insurance company's business that is not life insurance.
Grammar: Used without 'a' or a plural: profits in non-life. It refers to a business area, not a countable item.
Patterns
- in non-life
- non-life and life
- growth in non-life
Most of the group's profit came from non-life last year.
The firm is expanding in non-life while life sales stay flat.
Analysts expect strong growth in non-life across the region.
Common combinations
- non-life insurance
- Non-life insurance covered the storm damage to their roof.
- non-life insurer
- A non-life insurer may also sell travel and health policies.
- non-life business
- The non-life business grew faster than the life business.
- life and non-life
- The bank offers both life and non-life products.
Synonyms and how they differ
- general insurance
- The more common everyday term in British English for the same idea; non-life is more formal and often used in company reports.
- property and casualty
- An American term for a similar category, but it usually includes liability insurance and may not cover exactly the same products.
Opposites
Word family
- life insurance noun
- Insurance that pays money when a person dies.
Commonly confused: non-life or life?
non-life vs life
In insurance, life means cover for death or serious illness. Non-life is everything else, such as cars and homes.
Practice
Which type of insurance would most likely be described as non-life?
Choose one answer.
Car insurance is non-life because it covers property damage, not a person's death. The other options all relate to life insurance.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “non-life”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.