bounty

[boun-tee]

noun

plural

bounties 

1. 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.

2. a generous gift.

   Synonyms: benefaction, present

3. generosity in giving.

   Synonyms: munificence, beneficence, charity, liberality

bounty

¹

/ ˈbaʊntɪ /

noun

1. generosity in giving to others; liberality

2. a generous gift; something freely provided

3. a payment made by a government, as, formerly, to a sailor on enlisting or to a soldier after a campaign

4. any reward or premium

   a bounty of 20p for every rat killed

Bounty

²

/ ˈbaʊntɪ /

noun

1. a British naval ship commanded by Captain William Bligh, which was on a scientific voyage in 1789 between Tahiti and the West Indies when her crew mutinied

Other Word Forms

• bountyless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bounty¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of bounty¹

C13 (in the sense: goodness): from Old French bontet , from Latin bonitās goodness, from bonus good

Synonym Study

See bonus.

Example Sentences

The politics are there in the armored vehicles rolling down city streets and the masked militias out to nab Ben for the bounty money.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He was also subject to an American bounty of $10 million.

Read more on BBC

It put a $50-million bounty on Maduro’s head and massed an armada off the coast of Venezuela, home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It opened my eyes to the bounty we have in the United States — a lifestyle that was once the envy of the world.

Read more on Salon

According to MI5, Hong Kong police have issued bounties against more than a dozen pro-democracy activists here in the UK and there have been increased reports of harassment and surveillance.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• donation 
• gift 
• largess www.thesaurus.com
• premium 
• prize 
• reward 

When To Use

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.