fee
Americannoun
-
a charge or payment for professional services.
a doctor's fee.
- Synonyms:
- honorarium, emolument, salary, stipend
-
a sum paid or charged for a privilege.
an admission fee.
-
a charge allowed by law for the service of a public officer.
-
Law.
-
an estate of inheritance in land, either absolute and without limitation to any particular class of heirs fee simple or limited to a particular class of heirs fee tail.
-
an inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
-
a territory held in fee.
-
-
a gratuity; tip.
verb (used with object)
-
to give a fee to.
-
Chiefly Scot. to hire; employ.
noun
-
a payment asked by professional people or public servants for their services
a doctor's fee
school fees
-
a charge made for a privilege
an entrance fee
-
property law
-
an interest in land capable of being inherited See fee simple fee tail
-
the land held in fee
-
-
(in feudal Europe) the land granted by a lord to his vassal
-
an obsolete word for a gratuity
-
-
law (of land) in absolute ownership
-
archaic in complete subjection
-
verb
-
rare to give a fee to
-
to hire for a fee
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fee
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French fie, variant of fief fief. See feudal
Explanation
A fee is the cost of something, or the amount of money charged. You might need to pay a fee when you visit your favorite state park. Clubs, national parks, and gyms all charge a fee to belong or to enter. There is also the fee that a professional charges for services, like the legal fee you pay when you hire an attorney or the fee you pay your dentist to clean your teeth. Fee has an Old French origin in the word fieu, "possession, holding, domain, or payment," from the Medieval Latin feodum, "land whose use is granted in return for service."
Vocabulary lists containing fee
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Vocabulary Review, Unit 6
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
That’s the black card with a $10,000 initiation fee and $5,000 annual fee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Commissions or trading costs are payable on both sides, there is a conversion fee to create the ADRs, there are borrowing costs on the ADRs also.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Bank of New York Mellon BNY 2.14%increase; up pointing triangle joined the chorus of big banks reporting blowout results for the second quarter, during which earnings soared on higher interest income and fee revenue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Newly appointed BBC chief Matt Brittin recently described the licence fee as a "busted flush"
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
It was a rich fee, considering that all Burnham wanted them to do was provide working drawings and make a few visits to Chicago.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
The Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund’s investor share class has annual expenses totaling 1.29% of assets under management, which makes for $129 in annual fees for a $10,000 investment.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Discovery shareholders and to manage escalating legal fees from a half-dozen law firms hired to help defend the merger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
The list of expenses goes on: credit-card debts, overdraft fees, interest on loans, funeral costs, unpaid taxes, administration fees for the estate.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
"No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
And some evenings I'd catch her and Ty'ree whispering about different doctors, their fees, and social service benefits.
From "Miracle's Boys" by Jacqueline Woodson
What MarketWatch found was that it’s probably best to retrieve the data first, and then feed it into the AI tool of choice with the JPMorgan instructions.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
They also feed on a broad range of native animals, including important pollinators such as honeybees as well as protected small vertebrates like tree frogs and lizards.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
The school racked up nearly 650,000 YouTube views from people scanning a live feed of the towering plant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
The study reaffirms fears that many wolves are becoming dependent on cattle as a primary food source as it is easier to feed on slow-moving, fatty cows than stalk the state’s dwindling deer population.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
My fingers itched to feed one thing through the wheel and watch it transform to another before my very eyes.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Shelters for Ukrainians feeing the Russian invasion, who do not need to apply for asylum in the Netherlands, are also nearly full, he said.
From Reuters ● Aug. 18, 2022
“It was a helpless feeing sitting there on the sideline not being able to do anything about your position,” he said.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
AG: I have a feeing this won’t be the last time this discussion is held.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2021
There you have it: Two elite competitors left openly griping at puzzling verdicts that decided the outcome in a way that undercut the winner’s moment and left the loser feeing robbed.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2020
“Will you report it? I’m not feeing well.”
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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.
