honorarium

[on-uh-rair-ee-uhm]

noun

plural

honorariums, honoraria 

1. a payment in recognition of acts or professional services for which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set.

   The mayor was given a modest honorarium for delivering a speech to our club.

2. a fee for services rendered by a professional person.

honorarium

/ ˌɒnəˈrɛərɪəm /

noun

1. a fee paid for a nominally free service

Word History and Origins

Origin of honorarium¹

1650–60; < Latin honōrārium fee paid on taking office, noun use of neuter of honōrārius honorary

Word History and Origins

Origin of honorarium¹

C17: from Latin: something presented on being admitted to a post of _honour

Example Sentences

The payments averaged about $4,100 a year, mostly as honoraria for talks and reimbursements for travel.

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Dr. Waxman was not associated with the study but was paid a speaking honorarium by the company.

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There is a cap of roughly $30,000 on outside pay for the justices, which mainly applies to teaching and other honorariums.

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Ms. Haley listed a dozen speaking engagements, for each of which she reported an honorarium between $100,001 and $1 million.

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He said Mattis listed the $100,000 honorarium figure on his application because he wanted the Marine Corps’ and State Department’s “most detailed and rigorous review” of his UAE speaking engagement.

Read more on Washington Post

When To Use

What does honorarium mean?

An honorarium is a payment for special, professional services that don’t technically require compensation or for which payment isn’t customarily given.An honorarium is usually given as an appreciative gesture for services outside of one’s normal job—it’s not a salary.More generally, it can refer to a one-time fee paid to a professional for their services.The correct plural of honorarium can be either honorariums or honoraria. Technically speaking, honoraria is the Latin-based plural form of honorarium. (Many other Latin-derived words can be pluralized in the same way, but many are rarely used, such as stadia as the plural for stadium.)Example: I was paid a modest honorarium for the summer poetry workshop that I led.