reparation

reparation, redress, amends, restitution, indemnity are comparable when they mean a return for something lost or suffered, usually through the fault of another.

Reparation implies an attempt to restore things to their normal or sound condition. It is chiefly applied to recompense for material losses or damages or reimbursement for repairs

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war reparations

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seek reparation from the state for flood damages

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but it is applied also to atonement for an offense, especially one incurring injury to others

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educated ... at royal expense as reparation for the death of his father— Nixon

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I am sensible of the scandal I have given by my loose writings, and make what reparation I am able— Dryden

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Redress heightens the implications of a grievance and therefore connotes compensation or satisfaction, or even, at times, retaliation or vengeance

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victims of the swindle sought redress in the courts

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redress is always to be had against oppression, by punishing the immediate agents— Johnson

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the civil law by which contracts are enforced, and redress given for slanders and injuries— Shaw

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particular grievances call not only for redress, but also for the formulation of universally valid reasons why they should be redressed— Huxley

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Amends is as strong as redress in its suggestion of due satisfaction but weaker in its implication of a grievance. It often implies a correction or restoration of a just balance

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if I did take the kingdom from your sons, to make amends, I'll give it to your daughter— Shak.

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love, freedom, comrades, surely make amends for all these thorns through which we walk to death— Masefield

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Restitution implies the restoration in kind or in value of what has been unlawfully taken

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a restitution of civil rights

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expressing willingness to offer restitution to those Jews who had been robbed ... by the Third Reich— Hirsch

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Indemnity is the specific term for money given (as by an insurance company) in reparation for losses (as from fire, accident, illness, or disaster) or for payments made by a defeated country for losses caused by war

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an attempt to make palatable to the country what... amounts to imposing a war indemnity upon xi— Schumpeter

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Analogous words: expiation, atonement (see under EXPIATE): compensation, remuneration, recompensing or recompense (see corresponding verbs at PAY)