fee
/fiː/
fee noun: an amount charged in return for permission to do something.
Noun
fee (plural fees)
- An amount charged in return for permission to do something
- television license fee
- An amount charged ancillary to the (occasionally null) base cost of a product or service; an additional charge, nominally for some additional privilege, ability or permission.
- booking fee, late fee
- no hidden fees;   the sticker price is $1 but all the extra fees push the price into triple digits; it costs just 4.99 and there are no fees
- An amount charged for something: the base cost of purchasing some thing, service, etc.
- admission fee, membership fee, drivers' license fee
- the fee for entry to the zoo is increasing from 50 to 60 dollars
- Synonyms:
- tax
- A fixed rate or price charged for (chiefly white-collar) professional services.
- lawyers' fees, tuition fee, bank fees, legal fees, consulting fee
- Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30
- 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).
- A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
- Synonym of fief: the land so held.
- Synonyms:
- fief
- An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
- Synonym of possession.
- Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;
And was the safeguard of the west: the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.1807, William Wordsworth, “On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic”, in Poems in Two Volumes - What doth the poor man's son inherit?
Stout muscles and a sinewy heart,
A hardy frame, a hardier spirit;
King of two hands, he does his part
In every useful toil and art;
A heritage, it seems to me,
A king might wish to hold in fee.1844, James Russell Lowell, The Heritage
- Synonyms:
- possession
- Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;
- Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
- A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
- For though sweet love to conquer glorious bee, / Yet is the paine thereof much greater than the fee.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
Verb
fee (third-person singular simple present fees, present participle feeing, simple past and past participle feed)
- To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
- In vain for Hellebore the patient cries / And fees the doctor; but too late is wise1693, John Dryden, “The Third Satire of Aulus Persius Flaccus”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis
- There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Proper noun capitalized: Fee
Fee
- A surname.
- A diminutive of the female given name Fiona.
- Then turning to Fiona, she said, “Fee, I'll only be a minute. […]2023, Zoë Jasko, Hope is Daffodil Bright
fee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
fee in Hindi
- monetary payment charged for professional services
- शुल्क śulk, वेतन vetan, फ़ीस fīs
fee in Tamil
- கட்டணம், சந்தா
fee in Marathi
- fee, payment, charge
- शुल्क śulka
fee in Urdu
- monetary payment charged for professional services
- فِیس fīs
More languagesFewer languages
- fee in Bengali
- পারিশ্রমিক, খরচ, দেয়ক, ভূসম্পত্তি
- fee in Telugu
- ఫీజు phīju
- fee in Malayalam
- ഫീസ്സ്
- fee in Kannada
- ಪರೀಕ್ಷಾ ಶುಲ್ಕ, ಪ್ರವೇಶಧನ, ಶಿಕ್ಷಣಶುಲ್ಕ, ವೇತನ
- fee in Gujarati
- ફી phī
- fee in Arabic
- رَسْم rasm
- fee in Thai
- ฤชา rʉ́-chaa, ค่า kâa, ภาษี paa-sǐi
- fee in Vietnamese
- phí, lệ phí
- fee in Myanmar
- လာဘ် labh, ကြေး kre:, လုပ်ခ luphka.
Examples of fee in a sentence
- Cronshaw had told him that the facts of life mattered nothing to him who by the power of fancy held in fee the twin realms of space and time.1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 121:
- We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.1847, Herman Melville, Omoo:
- Santon had named, that Delwood presented himself, and handsomely feeing the porter who answered his summons, he asked to see Miss Santon […]1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:
Synonyms of fee
Forms of fee
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fees |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fees |
| present participle | feeing |
| past participle | feed |
| past | feed |
Origin of fee
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...
Words formed from fee
- 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
Phrases with fee
Words that rhyme with fee
Questions about fee
- What does fee mean?
- Fee means an amount charged in return for permission to do something.
- What is fee in Hindi?
- Fee in Hindi is शुल्क (śulk), वेतन (vetan), फ़ीस (fīs). See Fee meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use fee in a sentence?
- Cronshaw had told him that the facts of life mattered nothing to him who by the power of fancy held in fee the twin realms of space and time.
- What part of speech is fee?
- Fee can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fee?
- Fee is pronounced /fiː/.
- What is the plural of fee?
- The plural of fee is fees.
Words near fee in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fee (page history and authors); Fee (page history and authors); fee (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); शुल्क (Marathi) (page history and authors); fee (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fee (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fee (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ફી (Gujarati) (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: en-us-fee.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
