royalty

Meanings

1. The rank, status, power or authority of a monarch.
2. People of royal rank, plus their families, treated as a group.
3. A royal right or prerogative, such as the exploitation of a natural resource; the granting of such a right; payment received for such a right.
4. The payment received by an owner of real property for exploitation of mineral rights in the property.
5. Payment made to a writer, composer, inventor etc for the sale or use of intellectual property, invention etc.
6. To make more money from a book than it cost to run an advertising campaign for it; to make enough in royalties to cover the advance a book received.
7. Someone in a privileged position.
8. A king and a queen as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.
9. The bounds of a royal burgh.

1. A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal + -ty. Doublet of regality.