fief
/fiːf/
fief noun: land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
Noun
fief (countable and uncountable, plural fiefs)
- Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
- Fief: m[asculine] A Fief. A (Knights) fee, a Mannor, or inheritance held by homage, and fealty; and given at the firſt, in truſt, and upon promiſe of aſſiſtance, or ſervice in the wars: […] Alſo, a Tenure, or Eſtate in fief, or in fee. This word was firſt heard of, after the conqueſt of Gallia by...1673, Randle Cotgrave, “Fief”, in A French and English Dictionary, London: Anthony Dolle, →OCLC
- And be it further ordained and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the Right and Title of the said Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal, in and to all and singular the said Fiefs and Seigniories of the Island of Montreal, of the Lake of the Two Mountains, and of Saint...1840 June 8, C[harles] Poulett Thomson, “An Ordinance to incorporate the Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal [No. 164 of 1840]”, in Copy of Ordinances Passed by the Governor...
- Synonym of estate: any land, when considered as a region over which the owner exercises lordly control.
- Through the years of my childhood my maternal grandmother remained the one unforgettable presence, the strong country woman ruling over her farm like a medieval lord. On her fief I first opened my eyes to poetry and to the land. […] There was something of the ancient matriarch in her, who had given...1989, Liliane Welch, “Grandparents: A Fragment”, in C. Dino Minni, editor, Ricordi, Things Remembered: An Anthology of Short Stories, Montreal: Guernica Editions, →ISBN, page 59
- Synonyms:
- estate
- A territory, a domain, an area over which one exercises lordly control, particularly with regard to corporate or governmental bureaucracies.
fief meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi
fief in Tamil
- நில மானியம்
fief in Urdu
- جاگیر
fief in Bengali
- An estate held with feudal obligations
- অওসত aosôt
fief in Punjabi
- fief, estate, demesne, prebend
- ਜਗੀਰ jagīr
More languagesFewer languages
- fief in Arabic
- إقْطَاعَة ʔiqṭāʕa
- fief in Indonesian
- kuripan, tanah seorangan
Examples of fief in a sentence
- The chief obligation of a sipahi was to take up residence on his fief and to be prepared at all times to rally, armed for battle, to his banner-holder's flag on the sultan's order.1992, Franz [Carl Heinrich] Babinger, translated by Ralph Manheim, edited by William C. Hickman, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time...
- Where a vassal kills the brother, son, or grandson of his lord, he should lose his fief on account of it.2001, “Law IX. For What Offenses Committed Against His Lord a Vassal Loses His Fief, and Also How the Lord Loses the Ownership of It if He...
- Investiture was the conferring of a fief by the lord to the vassal, and the rite consisted in the handing over by the lord of some symbolic object intended to represent the act of concession.2010, Gerard J. Brault, “The Death of Roland—Laisses 174–176 (verses 2355–2396)”, in The Song of Roland: An Analytical Edition. Volume I....
Synonyms of fief
Forms of fief
| plural | fiefs |
|---|
Origin of fief
From Middle French fief, from Old French fief, from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (whence also Old French fieu, fied), from Old Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *peḱu- (“sheep”). Doublet of fee, feud, and feoff.
Words formed from fief
Words that rhyme with fief
Questions about fief
- What does fief mean?
- Fief means land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
- What is fief in Tamil?
- Fief in Tamil is நில மானியம். See Fief meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use fief in a sentence?
- The chief obligation of a sipahi was to take up residence on his fief and to be prepared at all times to rally, armed for battle, to his banner-holder's flag on the sultan's order.
- What part of speech is fief?
- Fief is a noun.
- How do you pronounce fief?
- Fief is pronounced /fiːf/.
- What is the plural of fief?
- The plural of fief is fiefs.
Words near fief in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fief (page history and authors); fief (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fief (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਜਗੀਰ (Punjabi) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fief.wav.
Cite this entry: “fief.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fief. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.