premium

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An amount paid or required, often as an installment payment, for an insurance policy.
• noun An amount paid to obtain a loan.
• noun An interest payment, usually on a regular basis, on a loan.
• noun A sum of money or bonus paid in addition to a regular price, salary, or other amount.
• noun The amount at which something, such as a security or a currency, is valued above its initial or nominal price.
• noun The amount at which a securities option is bought or sold.
• noun Something offered free or at a reduced price as an inducement to buy something else.
• noun A prize or award.
• noun An unusual or high value.
• noun Archaic Payment for training in a trade or profession.
• adjective Of superior quality or value.
• idiom (at a premium) More valuable than usual, as from scarcity.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A reward; a recompense given for a particular action or line of conduct.
• noun That which is given for the loan of money; interest.
• noun In insurance, the amount paid or agreed to be paid in one sum or periodically to insurers as the consideration for a contract of insurance. See insurance, 2.
• noun In banking and currency, the difference by which the value of one metallic currency exceeds that of another of the same denomination, or by which a metallic currency exceeds a paper currency of the same denomination in the same country; agio: the opposite of discount, or disagio, which is the amount by which the value of one currency has depreciated when compared with another.
• noun In stock-broking, etc., the percentage of difference by which the market price of shares, stocks, bonds, etc., exceeds their face-value or the sum originally paid for them: thus, when stock originally issued at $100 per share sells at $140 per share, it is said to be at a premium of 40 per cent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A reward or recompense; a prize to be won by being before another, or others, in a competition; reward or prize to be adjudged; a bounty
• noun Something offered or given for the loan of money; bonus; -- sometimes synonymous with interest, but generally signifying a sum in addition to the capital.
• noun A sum of money paid to underwriters for insurance, or for undertaking to indemnify for losses of any kind.
• noun A sum in advance of, or in addition to, the nominal or par value of anything

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Superior in quality; higher in price or value.
• noun A prize or award.
• noun Something offered at a reduced price as an inducement to buy something else.
• noun A bonus paid in addition to normal payments.
• noun The amount to be paid for an insurance policy.
• noun An unusually high value.
• noun finance The amount by which a security's value exceeds its face value.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun payment or reward (especially from a government) for acts such as catching criminals or killing predatory animals or enlisting in the military
• noun a prize, bonus, or award given as an inducement to purchase products, enter competitions initiated by business interests, etc.
• adjective having or reflecting superior quality or value
• noun the amount that something in scarce supply is valued above its nominal value
• noun payment for insurance
• noun a fee charged for exchanging currencies