From Middle English fee, fe, feh, feoh, from Old English feoh with contamination from Old French fieu, fief (from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (see feud), from Frankish *fehu; whence fief), both from Proto-Germanic *fehu, from Proto-Indo-European *péḱu.

• enPR: fē IPA: /fiː/

fee (plural fees)

1. An amount charged for a privilege.

   late fee; license fee, admission fee; activation fee; service fee

2. An amount charged for professional services.

   ''legal fees; consulting fees

3. An additional monetary payment charged for a service or good, especially one that is minor compared to the underlying cost.
4. (law) An inheritable estate in land, whether absolute and without limitation to potential heirs (fee simple) or with limitations to particular kinds of heirs (fee tail).
5. (law, historical) A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
6. (law, historical) Synonym of fief: the land so held.
7. (law, historical) An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
8. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of possession.
   • 1844, The Heritage, by James Russell Lowell

     What doth the poor man's son inherit? / Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, / A hardy frame, a hardier spirit; / King of two hands, he does his part / In every useful toil and art; / A heritage, it seems to me, / A king might wish to hold in fee.

   • 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 121:

     Cronshaw had told him that the facts of life mattered nothing to him who by the power of fancy held in fee the twin realms of space and time.

9. (obsolete) Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
10. (obsolete) A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

      For though sweet love to conquer glorious bee, / Yet is the paine thereof much greater than the fee.

• feoffee
• fief

• French: honoraires, tarif
• German: Gebühr
• Italian: tassa, tariffa, quota, onorario, emolumento, retta
• Portuguese: taxa, honorário
• Russian: (royalty, honorarium) гонора́р
• Spanish: honorario, tarifa, cuota

fee (fees, present participle feeing; simple past and past participle feed)

1. To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
   • 1693, John Dryden, “The Third Satire of Aulus Persius Flaccus”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis:

     In vain for Hellebore the patient cries / And fees the doctor; but too late is wise

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:

     There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.

   • 1847, Herman Melville, Omoo:

     We departed the grounds without seeing Marbonna; and previous to vaulting over the picket, feed our pretty guide, after a fashion of our own.