Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use fief in a sentence

10 example sentences · noun

Fief means land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service. Example: “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.”

Examples of fief by meaning

nounLand held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.

  • 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....

More sentences with fief

  • Sometimes the duchy was granted in fief, sometimes held by the king in person.2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 106. From the entry in fief
  • Pronoia was a fiscal and administrative institution; the fief territorial and personal.1992, Mark C. Bartusis, “Smallholding and Pronoia Soldiers and Their Financing”, in Ruth Mazo Karras, editor, The Late Byzantine Army…. From the entry pronoia
  • Failure to perform duties opened the culprit to charges of ‘felony’ (felonia), providing grounds for the king to escheat the fief.2016, Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, Penguin, published 2017, page 329. From the entry escheat
  • Amir Khan was the leading amir of the Türkman tribe, which had come to regard Azerbaijan as its fief.2009, Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend, I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. From the entry Türkman
  • Feudum antiquum ; an ancient feud or fief ; a fief descended to the vassal from his ancestors. 2 Bl.1987, Alexander M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary, page 620. From the entry Bl. Com.
  • Opinion divided, broadly speaking, between those who regarded emphyteusis as resembling normal establishments of peasants by lease, and those who saw an emphyteutic tenure as a sort of fief.1991, Paul Freedman, The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 147. From the entry emphyteusis
  • Unlike fiefs, pronoiai were granted only by the emperor, and so they played no role in producing the subinfeudation and the hierarchical social and political structure characteristic of Western feudalism.1992, Mark C. Bartusis, “Smallholding and Pronoia Soldiers and Their Financing”, in Ruth Mazo Karras, editor, The Late Byzantine Army…. From the entry pronoia

Meaning of fief

  1. noun Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
  2. noun Synonym of estate: any land, when considered as a region over which the owner exercises lordly control.
  3. noun A territory, a domain, an area over which one exercises lordly control, particularly with regard to corporate or governmental bureaucracies.

Full definition of fief

Questions about fief in a sentence

How do you use fief in a sentence?
Fief is used as a noun. For example: “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 is a short sentence with fief?
“Pronoia was a fiscal and administrative institution; the fief territorial and personal.”
What does fief mean?
Fief means land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fief (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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