Meanings
plural tontines
- businessA form of investment in which, on the death of an investor, his share is divided amongst the other investors.
They were pleasantly high, but in an almost self-conscious way, as if they were members of a tontine blessed by the unexpected death of two or three of its members.
2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 2372 more examples
When Joseph Finsbury and his brother Masterman were little lads in white-frilled trousers, their father—a well-to-do merchant in Cheapside—caused them to join a small but rich tontine of seven-and-thirty lives.
1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, chapter 1, in The Wrong BoxThere were many speculative schemes which gambled on the expectation of an individual's life, as in the tontine system, whereby all the group's contributions went to the last survivor.
1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 634
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna form of life insurance whereby on the death or default of a participant their share is distributed to the remaining members
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Frenchtontine
- Englishtontine
From French tontine, named after Lorenzo de Tonti, who introduced the scheme into France in around 1653. Thus, from Tonti + -ine.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan tontina
- tontinaTranslations
French tontine
- tontineTranslations
Polish tontyna
- tontynaTranslations
Spanish tontina
- tontinaTranslations
Cite this entry
tontine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tontine
“tontine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tontine. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tontine,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tontine.
Source: tontine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.