English Explanatory Dictionary

fee

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An amount charged for a privilege.
  2. An amount charged for professional services.
  3. An additional monetary payment charged for a service or good, especially one that is minor compared to the underlying cost.
  4. An inheritable estate in land, whether absolute and without limitation to potential heirs (fee simple) or with limitations to particular kinds of heirs (fee tail).
  5. A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
  6. Synonym of fief: the land so held.
  7. An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
  8. Synonym of possession.
  9. Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
  10. A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
verb
  1. To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Fiona.

Pronunciation

fē /fiː/ en-us-fee.ogg

Word forms

fee fees feeing feed

Etymology

From Middle English fee, fe, feh, feoh, from Old English feoh (“cattle, property, wealth, money, payment, tribute, fee”) with contamination from Old French fieu, fief (from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (see feud), from Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”); whence fief), both from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep, livestock, owndom”), from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu (“livestock”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fäi (“cattle, livestock”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), Cimbrian biighe, viighe (“animal, beast”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), German Viech (“animal, beast”), Vieh (“livestock”), German Low German Veeh (“cattle, livestock, property”), Luxembourgish Véi (“cattle”), Vilamovian fi, fī, fii, fiih (“cattle, livestock”), Yiddish פֿי (fi), פֿיך (fikh, “cattle, livestock”), Danish and Faroese fæ (“cattle, livestock”), Icelandic fé (“assets, livestock, money”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fe (“cattle, livestock”), Swedish fä (“beast, cattle, dolt”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍉 (faihō), 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿 (faihu, “possessions, property; riches, wealth; money”); also Latin pecū (“cattle”), Old Prussian pecku (“cattle”), Armenian ասր (asr, “fleece, wool”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬎 (pasu, “livestock”), Bactrian ποσο (poso, “sheep”), Central Kurdish پەز (pez, “sheep”), Northern Kurdish pez (“sheep”), Ossetian фыс (fys, “sheep”), Talysh pəs, пәс (“sheep”), Sanskrit पशु (paśu, “cattle”).

Synonyms

fief possession

Related words

feoffee fief fee-faw-fum

Derived words

absolute fee simple advance fee fraud advance fee scam alms-fee amenity fee attorney's fee base fee bullet fee composition fee conditional fee convenience fee court fee defeasible fee destination fee entry fee exit fee facility fee feeable feebate fee-fees fee fees fee-for-service feeless feepayer feepaying fee schedule fee simple fee splitting fee-splitting fee tail feevee filing fee finder's fee frank-fee gas fee great fee handling fee in fee in-lieu fee joining fee junk fee kill fee kitchen-fee knight's fee kosher fee late fee license fee licensing fee nonfee nuisance fee qualified fee registration fee resort fee service fee setup fee stole fee stole-fee transfer fee unfeed urban fee
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