A rebate is money that gets returned to you after you've already paid for something. When you buy a product with a rebate, you pay the full price at first, then mail in a form or submit a receipt online to get some of your money back later. It's like a delayed discount.

Companies use rebates as a marketing strategy. A laptop might cost $800, but with a $100 rebate, you eventually pay only $700. The catch is that you have to do the work to claim it: save your receipt, fill out forms, and wait weeks or even months for your check or gift card to arrive. Many people forget to send in their rebate forms or miss the deadline, which can benefit the companies offering rebates.

Rebates differ from regular discounts because discounts reduce the price immediately at the register, while rebates require effort and patience to get your money back. Some rebates come as checks you can deposit, while others arrive as gift cards you can only use at certain stores.

The word can also mean a partial refund in other contexts, like a tax rebate, where the government returns some of the taxes you've paid.