fee
Americannoun
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fees
plural
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a charge or payment for professional services.
a doctor's fee.
- Synonyms:
- honorarium, emolument, salary, stipend
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a sum paid or charged for a privilege.
an admission fee.
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a charge allowed by law for the service of a public officer.
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Law.
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an estate of inheritance in land, either absolute and without limitation to any particular class of heirs fee simple or limited to a particular class of heirs fee tail.
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an inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
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a territory held in fee.
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a gratuity; tip.
verb (used with object)
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to give a fee to.
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Chiefly Scot. to hire; employ.
noun
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a payment asked by professional people or public servants for their services
a doctor's fee
school fees
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a charge made for a privilege
an entrance fee
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property law
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an interest in land capable of being inherited See fee simple fee tail
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the land held in fee
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(in feudal Europe) the land granted by a lord to his vassal
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an obsolete word for a gratuity
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law (of land) in absolute ownership
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archaic in complete subjection
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verb
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rare to give a fee to
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to hire for a fee
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fee
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French fie, variant of fief fief. See feudal
Explanation
A fee is the cost of something, or the amount of money charged. You might need to pay a fee when you visit your favorite state park. Clubs, national parks, and gyms all charge a fee to belong or to enter. There is also the fee that a professional charges for services, like the legal fee you pay when you hire an attorney or the fee you pay your dentist to clean your teeth. Fee has an Old French origin in the word fieu, "possession, holding, domain, or payment," from the Medieval Latin feodum, "land whose use is granted in return for service."
Vocabulary lists containing fee
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
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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:
Discounts: Many premium credit cards will rebate the fee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Manchester City have agreed to pay a joint-British transfer record fee of £125m for Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
If they’re still not budging, you can request other concessions, such as a discounted deposit, free parking or a waived pet fee.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
This summer, 38% of deals involving a transfer fee have been from one Premier League club to another, which is an increase from last year, when the figure was 30%.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
“Jonah was adopted through a reputable adoption agency—we had no contact with any smuggling rings! We—we didn’t pay anything! Except the regular adoption fee . . . but—but everyone pays that!”
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
This business includes sales of apps where Apple collects as much as 30% fees on in-app purchases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
France has started imposing fees on fast fashion items which could reach almost €20 per garment by 2030, as the government tries to curb sales of cheap clothing sold by e-commerce sites.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
By Marlon James Riverhead Books: 640 pages, $32 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
His trust also agreed to cover the town’s $129,000 legal fees.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
They had had to sell three or four cows to pay the fees when I went to Kabarak.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
All states, as well as Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories, feed into the database and use it to manage their licensing and check for issues, including red flags on individuals’ driving records.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
When energy prices rise and feed through to the economy, bond investors demand higher yields to compensate for higher inflation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
They would be able to prevent videos from automatically playing and choose a social media feed that doesn’t display recommended content.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
The captions aren’t meant to be read by users, exactly, but instead picked up by keyword-trained algorithms that surface the post on your feed.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026
And his mom would sigh and take him back to the rocking chair and feed him again.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
“There is an increased excitement — the feeing is palpable,” said Legend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
Shelters for Ukrainians feeing the Russian invasion, who do not need to apply for asylum in the Netherlands, are also nearly full, he said.
From Reuters ● Aug. 18, 2022
She mixed in stripes and solids to keep rooms from feeing overgrown.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 27, 2022
“It was a helpless feeing sitting there on the sideline not being able to do anything about your position,” he said.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
“Will you report it? I’m not feeing well.”
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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.
