paywall

Or pay wall

[pey-wawl]

noun

1. a system in which access to all or part of a website is restricted to paid subscribers.

   Some newspapers have put their content behind a paywall.

2. the part of a website that can be accessed only by paid subscribers.

verb (used with object)

1. to restrict access to (all or part of a website) to paid subscribers.

   Here’s an abstract, but the full article is paywalled.

Word History and Origins

Origin of paywall¹

First recorded in 2005–10; pay ¹ + (fire)wall

Example Sentences

Back then, most scholarly work was exclusively found in books or behind the paywalls of journals.

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Davidson referenced a New York Times article about trouble with their business venture, but said, “I cant spend $5 on a paywall when I have a kid on the way.”

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CNN introduced a paywall on its website last year, giving users unfettered access to articles and video on the site for $3.99 a month.

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The paywall will be launched for the BBC app in the US at a later date.

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The collective longing for a sturdier system, currently molting in tradwife TikToks and behind the paywall of Andrew Tate’s Hustlers University, is supported by a scaffolding of legitimate critique.

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