superannuation
Regular payment made into a fund by an employee towards a pension, or the retirement pension scheme itself; retirement due to age.
Used heavily in British, Australian, and Commonwealth English to denote pension contributions, statutory retirement funds, or mandatory age-based retirement.
Word relationships
- pension: Pension is the general word for retirement payout, whereas superannuation refers specifically to the accumulated retirement fund or compulsory scheme in Commonwealth systems.
- retirement: Retirement is the broad life transition, while superannuation emphasizes the financial framework and statutory age discharge.
- employment: Active state of working for wages.
- recruitment: Hiring new staff into active employment.
Commonly confused with
- annuity: An annuity is a fixed annual income stream, whereas superannuation is the broader retirement pension system or age-based discharge.
Word family
- superannuated (adjective): Retired with a pension, or obsolete due to age.
- superannuate (verb): To retire someone with a pension.
Collocations
- superannuation fund
- superannuation scheme
- reach superannuation
- superannuation benefit
Example sentences
- "Australian workers are required by law to contribute a portion of their earnings into a superannuation fund for retirement." Financial management
- "Upon reaching his superannuation at age sixty-five, the senior judge was granted a full university emeritus title." Administrative policy
Memory hook
Super + annuation (annual years) = getting paid super money after years of working! Beyond working years into a paid pension.
When not to use
Avoid using superannuation to describe informal cash savings; it specifically refers to formal institutional pension arrangements or formal retirement.
Fun facts
- In Australia, the system is universally nicknamed 'super', and total Australian superannuation assets exceed 3.5 trillion Australian dollars, making it one of the largest pension pools in the world.
Related words
Explore more words
superannuated, gratuity, expat, salary, resignation, overtime
Also appears in
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