Meaning & use
Tontine
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A financial arrangement in which participants contribute to a shared fund and, as members die, the remaining participants receive a growing share, with the last survivor taking the whole amount.
See it in a sentence
The elderly cousins had joined a small tontine decades earlier, and only two members remained.
Tontines were once a popular alternative to life insurance and government bonds.
A note on using this word
Named after Lorenzo de Tonti, the Italian banker credited with devising the scheme in 17th-century France; tontines later inspired numerous mystery plots because of their built-in incentive for foul play.
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