Added 3 October 2026
fee
/fiː/ noun ▶ hear it
In Latin: feudum, honōrārium, mercēs Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0), via the Free Dictionary API. More about fee at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- (feudal law) A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.
- An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
- 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).
verb
Origin
From Middle English fee, fe, feh, feoh, from Old English feoh (“cattle, property, wealth, money, payment, tribute, fee”) with contamination from Old French fieu, fief (from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (see feud), from Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”); whence fief), both from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep, livestock, owndom”), from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu (“livestock”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)