bounty
noun
a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government.
bounty
American
[boun-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:
If El-Sayed makes it to Capitol Hill, the win will represent, by far, Piker’s most impressive bounty yet.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
All told, The Beatles and their magisterial producer George Martin loosed 16 amazing new songs into the world in August 1966, an incredible bounty, by any measure.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
New Mexico’s oil-and-gas bounty has helped build a $75 billion investment fund that would be the envy of Wall Street.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
At a time when drama has come to depend on celebrity leads and commercial hype, this bounty of understated excellence is heartening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Five thousand dollars is easily the largest bounty in months.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
"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
A passenger from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship is in quarantine on tiny Pitcairn Island, a volcanic outcrop in the South Pacific famously settled by mutineers from the HMS Bounty.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
Procter & Gamble, which makes Tide detergent, Bounty paper towels and Crest toothpaste, said this week it was seeing more caution from American consumers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Reality TV star Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman and his family are mourning the recent loss of one of their own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2025
At the Captain’s Bounty Motor Inn, there were no guests on the balconies.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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
The US has removed millions of dollars in bounties from senior members of the Haqqani militant network in Afghanistan, including one on its leader Sirajuddin Haqqani who is also the Taliban government's interior minister.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025
One of the bounties of the current golden age of TV has been the blurring of genre boundaries, affording more complex life to the likes of Netflix’s “Dead to Me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
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
I’ve lost four bounties in a row this month.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
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.
