tax
noun
a sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc.
tax
1 American
[taks]
/ tæks /
noun
-
taxes
plural
verb (used with object)
-
taxes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
taxed,
past participle, past
-
taxing
present participle
-
(of a government)
-
to demand a tax from (a person, business, etc.).
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to demand a tax in consideration of the possession or occurrence of (income, goods, sales, etc.), usually in proportion to the value of money involved.
-
-
to lay a burden on; make serious demands on.
to tax one's resources.
-
to take to task; censure; reprove; accuse.
to tax one with laziness.
-
Informal. to charge.
What did he tax you for that?
-
Archaic. to estimate or determine the amount or value of.
verb (used without object)
-
taxes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
taxed,
past participle, past
-
taxing
present participle
tax-
2
American
tax
British
/ tæks /
noun
-
a compulsory financial contribution imposed by a government to raise revenue, levied on the income or property of persons or organizations, on the production costs or sales prices of goods and services, etc
-
a heavy demand on something; strain
a tax on our resources
verb
-
to levy a tax on (persons, companies, etc, or their incomes, etc)
-
to make heavy demands on; strain
to tax one's intellect
-
to accuse, charge, or blame
he was taxed with the crime
-
to determine (the amount legally chargeable or allowable to a party to a legal action), as by examining the solicitor's bill of costs
to tax costs
-
slang to steal
tax
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nontaxnoun
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nontaxernoun
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subtaxernoun
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taxernoun
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taxlessnessnoun
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retaxverb (used with object)
-
untaxverb (used with object)
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antitaxadjective
-
protaxadjective
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self-taxedadjective
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taxlessadjective
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undertaxedadjective
-
well-taxedadjective
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taxinglyadverb
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taxlesslyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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taxsimple
-
taxessimple
-
have taxedperfect
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has taxedperfect
-
am taxingprogressive
-
are taxingprogressive
-
is taxingprogressive
-
have been taxingperfect progressive
-
has been taxingperfect progressive
Past
-
taxedsimple
-
had taxedperfect
-
was taxingprogressive
-
were taxingprogressive
-
had been taxingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tax
First recorded in 1250–1300; (for the verb) Middle English taxen, from Medieval Latin taxāre, from Latin: “to appraise, charge, estimate,” literally, “to touch repeatedly,” from tangere “to touch”; noun derivative of the verb
Explanation
A charge or fee that a government imposes on a citizen or business is called a tax. Taxes help to pay for the services people (and businesses) receive from the government. There are many different kinds of taxes—on purchases, property, and income, for example—but all tax money is meant to pay for things that benefit people in society. For example, in many places schools, road repairs, fire departments, and health care for elderly and disabled people are all paid for with money from taxes. As a verb, tax can either mean "impose a tax on" or "put a strain or burden on."
Vocabulary lists containing tax
Citizenship (Civics) - Middle School
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Economics
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Ratios and Proportional Relationships
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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:
White feels this corner of England that he lives is not as well maintained and says people don't feel like they get back the tax they pay in.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
“Running afoul of tax laws can be a costly financial mistake,” Balcom said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
While the federal estate tax hits only the wealthiest Americans, the thresholds for state estate and inheritance taxes are generally much lower and can catch even middle-class families by surprise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
When it comes time to sell your home, don’t overlook tax breaks that could save you a significant amount of money.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
I told them they’d better figure out where they needed to go or I was going to collect a tax from them for getting in the way.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
Black socialized with Jeffrey Epstein and turned to him for tax- and estate-planning advice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Federal law also allows up to $10,000 annually in tax- and penalty-free withdrawals for elementary, middle and high school tuition, but California does not.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2022
The limit on tax- free withdrawals from registered retirement savings plans for first-time buyers will be raised to C$35,000, from C$25,000, the first change to the limit in a decade.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 19, 2019
But when I looked up “the world’s highest tax- payer”, the search returned lots of information on which countries had the highest tax rates.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 6, 2019
She used to have an office downtown, but David got kicked out of day care, so now she runs her tax- preparation business from our spare bedroom.
From "Rules" by Cynthia Lord
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia impose estate or inheritance taxes or both.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
“Where you’re domiciled on Dec. 31 can determine which state taxes your entire retirement income for that year,” said Jeff Judge, a certified financial planner and managing partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
It expects to generate $67 billion a year in revenue and about $28 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
The state’s light regulation and low taxes are luring dozens of big companies.
From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026
They paid taxes just like everyone else and paid for private health insurance for our family.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
Mining firms are now taxed 20 grams of gold per hectare per month, or the equivalent in cash, no matter their profits.
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
Focus on one thing only: the life you actually intend to fund, priced honestly, taxed correctly, measured in years.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
It’s true that lower-income people spend a relatively larger share of earnings on goods, but these are for the most part already taxed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Income above this amount is not taxed for Social Security, but does not count toward increasing your future benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
If your brain is taxed, you may not even be able to make a clearheaded decision about what is the right thing to do.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Fundamentally, what makes a legislature powerful is its control over taxing and spending, the power of the purse.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
In theory, taxing capital would slow AI’s deployment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Perhaps the answer could be some combination of taxing gains at death and taxing inheritances under the federal income tax, as recently advocated by my colleague Ray Madoff.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
President of Soroptimist International Jersey Debbie Taylor said the initiative was "great" but still taxing the products in shops was "another example of inequality".
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
This was, it quickly became evident, the base of the first big hill, Frosty Mountain, and it was immediately taxing.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
