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:
The incident happened on Wednesday, two days after Dedic - who joined from Benfica for a fee in the region of £30m in August - had played in Newcastle's 1-0 home defeat by Everton.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
The credit-score provider is moving to a pricing structure tailored to individual customer needs rather than a single flat fee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
One of its most lucrative App Store fee generators has been the ChatGPT app from OpenAI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
While the university hoped to reduce that, he said that a combination of cuts in funding from Stormont and a fall in student fee income meant the university had to "control costs".
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
“And instead of an entrance fee, we asked for a donation, either money or food, for a local homeless shelter.”
From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez
Buyers will sometimes pay the seller’s closing costs, title fees, their real-estate agent’s commission and other costs, such as the mansion tax in New Jersey or transfer taxes in Georgia.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, the Healthineers rebrand should remove concerns about Siemens licensing fees, the analyst adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
The government is also consulting on whether local leaders should have extra powers, including setting fees and requirements for operators to share data to improve enforcement and journey planning.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
It said it would move to agreed revenue splits from the box office rather than paying guaranteed fees for future tours.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
Once they got finished slapping you with pay deductions, late fees, and interest penalties, you wound up owing them more each month, instead of less.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
After hatching, the larvae feed on the roots, sometimes destroying enough tissue to kill the tree.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
Google itself has faced questions about what might become of its traditional search-engine business if more people feed their questions into AI.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
"Then suddenly, the feed cut out," she says.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Velshi’s on-air analysis will be augmented by an additional feed called VelshiCast, a behind-the-scenes look that will stream on MS NOW’s YouTube channel.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026
Patience scrolled through a news feed on her phone.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
The Glaswegian finished 34th, a result that left her "embarrassed" and feeing as is "she had made a show of herself" according to younger sister Sarah.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 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
“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
In my case, after hearing the call of those geese, I spent the next several days missing my dad, feeing sad even as I was a happy new mom.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 1, 2021
“Will you report it? I’m not feeing well.”
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
