Word.ws English Dictionary

corvee

UK/ˈkɔːveɪ//kɔːɹˈveɪ/

corvee noun: unpaid labor required by a feudal lord.

Noun

corvee (countable and uncountable, plural corvees)

  1. Unpaid labor required by a feudal lord.
  2. Labor, especially for roads or dams, in lieu of taxes.

corvee meaning in Arabic, Malay, Indonesian and Persian

corvee in Arabic

unpaid labor required by a feudal lord
سُخْرَة suḵra
labor in lieu of taxes
سُخْرَة suḵra, كُوج kūj

corvee in Malay

unpaid labor required by a feudal lord
amalan kerah

corvee in Indonesian

unpaid labor required by a feudal lord
korve, kerja paksa, kerja rodi, rodi

corvee in Persian

unpaid labor required by a feudal lord
بیگار bigâr, شاکار šâkâr, مچرگ mačarg
labor in lieu of taxes
کوچ kuč

Forms of corvee

pluralcorvees
alternative formcorvée

Origin of corvee

From French corvée, from Late Latin conrogāta, derived from Latin conrogāre (“call together by entreaty”).

Questions about corvee

What does corvee mean?
Corvee means unpaid labor required by a feudal lord.
What is corvee in Arabic?
Corvee in Arabic is سُخْرَة (suḵra), كُوج (kūj). See Corvee meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is corvee?
Corvee is a noun.
How do you pronounce corvee?
Corvee is pronounced /ˈkɔːveɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of corvee?
The plural of corvee is corvees.

Words near corvee in the dictionary

  1. coruscatings
  2. coruscation
  3. coruscations
  4. Corvallis
  5. corve
  6. corvee
  7. corvees
  8. corver
  9. Corvera
  10. Corveras
  11. corvers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: corvee (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Knabrupt-corvee.wav.

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