bounty
noun
a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government.
bounty
American
[baun-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:
Expect a series of escape room-inspired puzzles to unravel, a bounty of ’80s references and a chance to encounter a Teddy Ruxpin doll.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
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
She walked her talk, using her material bounty to establish and give generously to institutions that directly elevated the human condition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The department, at the end of the day, had paid him his bounty.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
The portfolio of seven brands being sold includes Nature’s Bounty and Sisu supplements, Nestle said Tuesday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
"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
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
The Pitcairn Islands has a population of about 50 people and most of the residents are descendants of mutineers from the Royal Navy warship HMS Bounty who settled there in 1790.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
In Mutiny on the Bounty, when people died at sea, they were wrapped in white sheets and thrown overboard with millstones around their necks so that the corpses wouldn’t float.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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
It is unclear if lifting the bounties was a part of the negotiations.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025
He had seen food bounties offered at Central too, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2025
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
The plantations were twice as big, twice as numerous, the fugitives more plentiful and nimble, the bounties higher.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
