Insurance: An agreement by an insurer to provide compensation or another benefit upon the occurrence of a specified risk causing harm to property or the person of an insured (Webster's New World Law Dictionary)
Insurance: n. A contract in which one party (the insurer) agrees for payment of a consideration (the premium) to make monetary provision for the other (the insured) upon the occurrence of some event or against some risk. For such contracts to be enforceable, there must be some element of uncertainty about the events insured against and the insured must have an *insurable interest in the subject matter of the contract (Oxford Dictionary of Law)