bounty
noun
a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government.
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Bounti.
bounty
American
[boun-tee]
/ ˈbaʊn ti /
noun
-
bounties
plural
-
a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government.
There was a bounty on his head. Some states offer a bounty for dead coyotes.
-
a generous gift.
- Synonyms:
- benefaction, present
-
generosity in giving.
- Synonyms:
- munificence, beneficence, charity, liberality
bounty
1
British
/ ˈbaʊntɪ /
noun
-
generosity in giving to others; liberality
-
a generous gift; something freely provided
-
a payment made by a government, as, formerly, to a sailor on enlisting or to a soldier after a campaign
-
any reward or premium
a bounty of 20p for every rat killed
Bounty
2
British
/ ˈbaʊntɪ /
noun
Usage
What does bounty mean? A bounty is a reward, especially one offered in an official way for the capture of someone or something. This sense of the word most often refers to the reward sought by bounty hunters for tracking down and capturing fugitive criminals (or, in older times, killing them). A more recent use of the word refers to the reward offered for identifying a software vulnerability in a company’s or organization’s system. In a broader sense, the word bounty means a generous gift or generosity in general. This sense of the word is most often used in a poetic way, such as referring to crops as the bounty of the land. The H. M. S. Bounty, the ship aboard which the notorious mutiny occurred, was probably named after this sense of the word. Example: The bounty offered for the capture of Billy the Kid was $500—dead or alive.
Synonym Usage
See bonus.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of bounty
1200–50; Middle English b ( o ) unte < Anglo-French, Old French bonte, Old French bontet < Latin bonitāt- (stem of bonitās ) goodness. See boon 2, -ity
Explanation
If there is bounty on your table, it means you have a wide variety and large quantity of food. If there's a bounty on your head, it means the government has put out a reward for your capture. Bounty derives from the Latin bonus "good." Both meanings of bounty are connected with the idea of generosity, giving. A government known for its bounty will probably set a large bounty on the head of a murderer at large.
Vocabulary lists containing bounty
May the 4th Be With You: Star Wars Words
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The Balcony Scene from "Romeo and Juliet"
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Such weather extremes may have caused queens to abandon their nests or die, reducing the initial spring queen bounty to a more modest population.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
The stolen antiquities follow other types of bounty the RSF has ransacked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Either scenario would likely imperil the administration’s plan to use the oil bounty to reload the strategic stocks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Disney got to work making spin-offs of spin-offs of stories about a bounty hunter who had around 10 minutes of screen time in the original Star Wars trilogy.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
“You made some bounty money today,” Iran said accusingly.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
"To date, CMDR's Bounty Project, which pays a financial reward to licensed commercial fishers for marine debris removal, has removed 84 tons of large, derelict fishing gear from the Pacific Ocean."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
They commissioned a forensic audit into the origins of a historic financial fund known as the Queen Anne's Bounty, originally set up to support clergy and parishes and the precursor of the modern-day fund.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
Offerings include a BBQ Bounty Whopper packaged in a clamshell box shaped like the Mandalorian helmet and a blue cookie milkshake — a nod to Grogu’s favorite snack.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
Procter & Gamble, which makes Tide detergent, Bounty paper towels and Crest toothpaste, said this week it was seeing more caution from American consumers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
At the Captain’s Bounty Motor Inn, there were no guests on the balconies.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
He never saw protection of domestic manufacturing as a long-term policy but rather insisted that “continuance of bounties on manufactures long established must almost always be of questionable policy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The plant is supposed to reflect our resilience, our prickliness, our ability to thrive under punishing conditions and give bounties of good to those who know how to treat us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2024
Come dinnertime at 5 p.m., its menu shifts to family-style meals, featuring a large seafood lineup with bounties from its live fish tanks.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
A lone fisher or group of happy fishers would go to the ocean, a river or lake, then haul in endless bounties of aquatic creatures.
From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2024
But there were roving slave patrollers, who made a living capturing runaways for bounties.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
