fee
Americannoun
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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
-
property law
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an interest in land capable of being inherited See fee simple fee tail
-
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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Vocabulary Review, Unit 6
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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 only thing that does not cancel out is the fee you pay for it.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Financial advisers drive referrals to the private bank’s mortgage unit and get a fee, expressed as a percentage of the total dollar amount of the mortgage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
But at a normal 7% return, that 1% fee actually works out to about 15% of your returns.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
But later switched to Wenup, a semi-automated service which charged him a fixed fee of £1,600 instead.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
The trip was paid for from the $5,000 appearance fee he was getting to compete for the United States in the Olympiad in Varna, Bulgaria.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
By Justin Halpern Cardinal: 256 pages, $29 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 ● Jul. 29, 2026
There is no reliable way to predict which managers will land in the winning 15%, other than looking at who charges the lowest fees.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
A lot can be said about the steadily increasing prices on an overheated transfer market where even prospects can demand fees in the nine digits, but Diomande is special.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Its wealth management division recorded a 13 percent increase in revenue, supported by fees generated from client transactions.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Why spend the rest of my life paying off my legal fees?
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
They could come out of hibernation too early and not have any nectar to feed on, or conversely the flowers could come out before the bees appear.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
The judge was in Department 213 of the Hollywood courthouse, where he could see the defendant on a video feed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
The cubs will feed from mum for about six months before she starts weaning them onto meat, Waller said.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“It was always too much trouble to feed you without it,” she later explains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
As the eggs hatch, they’ve got plenty of spider meat to feed them on.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
On the eve of the United States' 250th birthday, Abdi, like many Americans, is feeing uneasy about the future of his country.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
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
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.
