Reparation means fixing or making up for harm that was done. When you break something valuable that belongs to someone else, paying to replace it or repair it is a form of reparation. The word comes from the Latin word for “repair,” which gives you a hint about what it means: putting things right again.

If your dog digs up your neighbor's flower garden, reparation might mean replanting the flowers and apologizing. If you accidentally ruin a friend's book, buying them a new copy is reparation. The key idea is that reparation tries to restore what was lost or damaged, or to make up for it in some meaningful way.

Reparations (plural) often refers to payments made by countries or groups to make amends for serious wrongs or damages. After World War I, Germany was required to pay reparations to the nations it had fought against for the destruction caused during the war.

The idea behind reparation is that when you cause harm, you take responsibility and try to make things better. This means taking action to fix what you broke or replace what you damaged.