royalty

[ roi-uhl-tee ]
See synonyms for: royaltyroyalties on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural roy·al·ties.
  1. royal persons collectively.

  2. royal status, dignity, or power; sovereignty: to be elevated to royalty.

  1. a person of royal lineage; member of a royal family.

  2. royalties, Archaic. prerogatives, rights, or symbolic emblems of a king, queen, or other sovereign.

  3. a royal domain; kingdom; realm.

  4. character or quality proper to or befitting a sovereign; nobility.

  5. the most well-known and admired member or members of a particular field or category: Her parents are Hollywood royalty. The brand is royalty among champagnes.

  6. a compensation or portion of the proceeds paid to the owner of a right, as a patent or oil or mineral right, for the use of it.

  7. an agreed portion of the income from a work paid to its author, composer, etc., usually a percentage of the retail price of each copy sold.

  8. a royal right, as over minerals, granted by a sovereign to a person or corporation.

  9. the payment made for such a right.

Origin of royalty

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English roialte, from Middle French, Old French roialté, derivative of roial; see origin at royal, -ty2

Other words from royalty

  • non·roy·al·ty, noun, plural non·roy·al·ties.
  • pre·roy·al·ty, noun, plural pre·roy·al·ties.

Words Nearby royalty

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use royalty in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for royalty

royalty

/ (ˈrɔɪəltɪ) /


nounplural -ties
  1. the rank, power, or position of a king or queen

    • royal persons collectively

    • one who belongs to the royal family

  1. any quality characteristic of a monarch; kingliness or regal dignity

  2. a percentage of the revenue from the sale of a book, performance of a theatrical work, use of a patented invention or of land, etc, paid to the author, inventor, or proprietor

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for royalty

royalty

A payment made for some right or privilege, as when a publisher pays a royalty to an author for the author's granting the publisher the right to sell the author's book.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.