bounty

Syllables: boun·ty/ˈbaʊnti/US/ˈbaʊn(t)i/

bounty noun: generosity; also (countable) an act of generosity.

Noun

bounty (countable and uncountable, plural bounties)

(uncountable) Generosity; also (countable) an act of generosity.
- [H]is [Henry I, Duke of Guise's] gifts, though conferred for the interest of his ambition, appeared always scattered with an easy bounty.1819, “[The Appendix to the Eighty-eighth Volume of the Monthly Review, Enlarged.] Art. XI. Histoire de France, &c.; i.e. A History of France during the Wars of Religion; by Charles Lacretelle, […]...
- She embraced Elizabeth and said in a voice of half-suppressed emotion, "Farewell, sweet lady, dearest Elizabeth, my beloved and only friend; may heaven, in its bounty, bless and preserve you; may this be the last misfortune that you will ever suffer! Live, and be happy, and make others so."1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter VIII, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC...
Synonyms:

liberality, munificence, bounteousness, bountihood

Antonyms:

frugality, parsimony, sparingness, stinginess
(countable) Something given liberally; a gift.
- [...] We have given and granted, and by theſe Preſents for Us, Our Heirs, and Succeſſors, do give and grant unto the ſaid Governors of the Bounty of Queen ANNE, for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the poor Clergy, hereby conſtituted, and their Succeſſors, all the Revenues of Firſt Fruits and...1704 November 3, “The Charters of the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, and the Rules Appointed under the Great Seal, for the Better Rule and Government of the said Corporation”, in The Return...
- That in this age of boasted liberality, of peculiar Christian effort, of enlightened intelligence, and, let us add, in this free Commonwealth, the church should not be allowed to receive, use, control, and appropriate the bounties and charities of its pious friends, which accompany their prayers...1829 March, “Examination of Some Laws and Judicial Decisions in Relation to the Churches of Massachusetts”, in The Spirit of the Pilgrims, volume II, number 3, Boston, Mass.: Published by Peirce and...
Synonyms:

boon, gratuity
(countable) A reward for some specific act, especially one given by an authority or a government.
- Let us therefore conſider ſeparately the encouraging of exportation of corn by bounties, the allowing it to be exported without any bounty, and the prohibiting it to be exported at all in certain caſes— [...] It is not for the ſake of the farmer, but for the good of the nation at large, that this...1792, George Skene Keith, “The Principles, by which All Corn Laws ought to be Regulated”, in Tracts on the Corn Laws of Great Britain, […], [Aberdeen?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 3
- In addition to the above reservations, a number of small conditional grants were made to the descendants of Indians and white persons, forming a mixed race, [...]. Particular care was taken by the commissioners, when these grants were made, to confine the bounty of government to those alone who had...1822 March 5, J[ohn] C[aldwell] Calhoun, Letter from the Secretary of War, to the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, upon the Subject of the Appropriations for the Year 1822. […] (House...
1. (specifically) A monetary reward for capturing (or, in the past, killing) a person accused or convicted of a crime and who is at large; also, a similar reward for capturing or killing an animal which is dangerous or causing a nuisance.
  - Whatever may be said in favor of bounties on the larger beasts of prey, those on hawks, owls, and the smaller fur-bearing animals can not be justified. Payments of this sort should cease, and laws should be enacted to protect species which careful investigations have shown to be mainly beneficial....1910, David E. Lantz, “Natural Enemies of the Rat”, in The Rat and Its Relation to Public Health (Public Health Bulletin; no. 30), Washington, D.C.: Public Health and Marine-hospital Service of the...
  - In her six years as a bounty hunter she witnessed many things. Professional gunfighters who worked for hire. A U.S. Marshal who walked into a bar where five killers waited for him and strolled out a few minutes later with a warm gun in his hand and five bodies to bring back to Colorado.2000, Shane Gooding, Bounties: The Pretty Little Killers, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 76
2. (historical) Money paid to a person when becoming a member of the armed forces, or as a reward for some service therein.
  - It was in the army to which bounties were thus given to privates, that the memorialists were officers; and gallant officers the history of that war amply proves they were. If the soldiers of that army and even the heirs of those who volunteered their services for a given and short period, but who...1831 March 1, “[Appendix to the Register of Debates in Congress.] Lands to Officers in the Late War.”, in Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second...
  - There is, in this case, not a particle of evidence tending even to show that the soldier ever received any bounty or gratuity on account of any or all of his service except $66.66, two-thirds of the amount of bounty payable under the act of July 22, 1861, [...]1904 March 23, M. W. Miller, “Evidence—Burden of Proof—Joint Resolution July 1, 1902—Practice. Catherine A., Widow of Isaac P. Brown, alias Albert B. Cole.”, in John W. Bixler, editor, Decisions of...
(countable, figuratively) An abundance or wealth.
- The bounty of Texas consists of a state full of rich living and traditions, stretching centuries back to the Indians, through the Spanish, Mexicans, and Anglos, to all the many nationalities that moved in and then spread out through Texas and the Southwest.1990, Francis Edward Abernethy, “Preface: In which the Editor Discusses the Personal Legend as Part of Folklore and Sneaks in One of His Own”, in Francis Edward Abernethy, editor, The Bounty of Texas...
- America insulted the rest of the planet, thought Malik Solanka in his old-fashioned way, by treating such bounty with the shoulder-shrugging casualness of the inequitably wealthy.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 6

Verb

bounty (third-person singular simple present bounties, present participle bountying, simple past and past participle bountied)

(transitive) To offer a monetary reward for the capturing or killing of.

Synonyms:

put a bounty on someone's head, put a price on someone's head

bounty meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

bounty in Tamil

தாராளம், கொடை, ஊக்க மான்யம், ஊக்கக் கழிவு, ஊக்கத் தொகை

bounty in Malayalam

prize, reward, award: ഉദാരസംഭാവന, പ്രതിഫലം, പാരിതോഷികം, സമ്മാനം, സമ്മാനത്തുക, വേതനം
magnanimity, generosity, munificence: ഔദാര്യം, ഉദാരത, ദാനം, മഹാമനസ്കത, മഹാമനസ്കത്വം, മഹത്തായ ദാനശീലം

bounty in Kannada

ಕೊಡುಗೈತನ, ಧಾರಾಳತನ, ಉದಾರತನ, ಕೊಡುಗೆ, ದಾನ, ಸಮೃದ್ಧಿ

More languagesFewer languages

bounty in Gujarati: બક્ષિસ, બક્ષીસ
bounty in Sanskrit: परीमन् párīman, परेमन् páreman
bounty in Tagalog: pabuya, gantimpala
bounty in Arabic: مُكَافَأَة mukāfaʔa, جَائِزَة jāʔiza
bounty in Persian: پاداش pādāš, پادافراه pādāfrāh
bounty in Thai: สินบน sǐn-bon
bounty in Vietnamese: thưởng kim

Examples of bounty in a sentence

The reporters of important security bugs may be paid a bounty by the software developer.
I want my part of the bounty.
Countries with export surpluses foisted them off by bounties or placed them through unilateral agreements.

All 21 example sentences with bounty

Synonyms of bounty

liberality
munificence
bounteousness
bountihood
boon
gratuity
put a bounty on someone's head
put a price on someone's head

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of bounty

Forms of bounty

Noun
plural	bounties
Verb
third-person singular present	bounties
present participle	bountying
past participle	bountied
past	bountied

Plural of bounty: bounties

Origin of bounty

From Middle English bounte (“goodness, virtue; beauty; strength; chivalry, valour; excellence; kindness, mercy; good deed; generosity”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman bounté and Old French bonté, bontet, bunté (modern French bonté (“goodness, kindness”)), from Latin bonitās.

Words formed from bounty

Phrases with bounty

Words that rhyme with bounty

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bounty

What does bounty mean?: Bounty means generosity; also (countable) an act of generosity.
What is bounty in Tamil?: Bounty in Tamil is தாராளம், கொடை, ஊக்க மான்யம். See Bounty meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bounty?: Bounty can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bounty?: Bounty is pronounced /ˈbaʊnti/ (UK).
What is the plural of bounty?: The plural of bounty is bounties.

Words near bounty in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: bounty (page history and authors); bounty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bounty (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bounty (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bounty (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bounty (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); परीमन् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-bounty.oga.

Cite this entry: “bounty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bounty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.