fee
/fiː/noun, verb
fee is spelled F-E-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,941st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fee means “An amount charged in return for permission to do something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fee is fees.
How many letters and syllables are in fee?
| Letters | 3: F-E-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 32 times per million words; the 2,941st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is fee?
Fee appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,941st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fee?
- /fiː/
Fee has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fee.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with fee
Sounds like: fi (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of fee
- fees plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- feeing participle, present
- feed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fee mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An amount charged in return for permission to do something
television license fee
- 2
An amount charged ancillary to the (occasionally null) base cost of a product or service; an additional charge, nominally for some additional privilege, ability or permission.
booking fee, late fee
- 3
An amount charged for something: the base cost of purchasing some thing, service, etc.
admission fee, membership fee, drivers' license fee
- 4
A fixed rate or price charged for (chiefly white-collar) professional services.
lawyers' fees, tuition fee, bank fees, legal fees, consulting fee
- 5
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).
- 6
A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
- 7
Synonym of fief: the land so held.
- 8
An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
verb
- 1
To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fee in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense monetary payment charged for professional services:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | honoraires, tarif |
| German | Gebühr |
| Portuguese | taxa, honorário |
| Spanish | honorario, tarifa, cuota |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fee come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).