fee

/fiː/

//fiː// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"fee" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“fee” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,947) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,947
frequency rank, English
2,507
“F” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An amount charged for a privilege.

Corpus desk

Index EN-fee · fee · English

fee · rank #2,947 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,947
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,507
  • PHOTO-FINISH fed

Nearest frequency peer: fed (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “fee”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “fee” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

fee vs fi
33% similar
fee vs FL
0% similar
fee vs FM
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for fee
PropertyValue
Headwordfee
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/fiː/
Letters3
Frequency rank#2,947
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “fee”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).feelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “fed” (#2,946), “injured” (#2,948), “exposed” (#2,945). Among 2,507 “F” headwords, “fee” is #2,947. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for fee is neighbouring look-alikes ("fi", "FL", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /fiː/. Frequency #2,947 among 2,507 “F” headwords. 10 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for fee, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fi", "FL", "FM", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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, … The correct English form is fee, spelled F-E-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    An amount charged for a privilege.
  2. 2
    An amount charged for professional services.
  3. 3
    An additional monetary payment charged for a service or good, especially one that is minor compared to the underlying cost.
  4. 4
    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. 5
    A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
  6. 6
    Synonym of fief: the land so held.
  7. 7
    An inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of performance of certain services, typically military service.
  8. 8
    Synonym of possession.
  9. 9
    Money paid or bestowed; payment; emolument.
  10. 10
    A prize or reward. Only used in the set phrase "A finder's fee" in Modern English.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fee appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. late fee; license fee, admission fee; activation fee; service fee
  2. legal fees; consulting fees

Etymology

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”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fäi (“cattle, livestock”), West Frisian fee (“livestock”), Cimbrian biighe, viighe (“animal, beast”), Dutch vee (“cattle, livestock”), German Viech (“animal, beast”), Vieh (“livestock”), German Low German Veeh (“cattle, livestock, property”), Luxembourgish Véi (“cattle”), Vilamovian fi, fī, fii, fiih (“cattle, livestock”), Yiddish פֿי (fi), פֿיך (fikh, “cattle, livestock”), Danish and Faroese fæ (“cattle, livestock”), Icelandic fé (“assets, livestock, money”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fe (“cattle, livestock”), Swedish fä (“beast, cattle, dolt”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍉 (faihō), 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿 (faihu, “possessions, property; riches, wealth; money”); also Latin pecū (“cattle”), Old Prussian pecku (“cattle”), Armenian ասր (asr, “fleece, wool”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬎 (pasu, “livestock”), Bactrian ποσο (poso, “sheep”), Central Kurdish پەز (pez, “sheep”), Northern Kurdish pez (“sheep”), Ossetian фыс (fys, “sheep”), Talysh pəs, пәс (“sheep”), Sanskrit पशु (paśu, “cattle”).

This word in other languages

tarifa(Español)honoraires(Français)Gebühr(Deutsch)taxa(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "fee"?
"fee" is spelled F-E-E. The IPA pronunciation is /fiː/.
What does "fee" mean?
As a noun, "fee" means: An amount charged for a privilege.
What words are commonly confused with "fee"?
"fee" is commonly confused with "fi", "FL", "FM". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fee"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fee" is /fiː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "fee"?
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 ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fee", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

fed#2,946Jan#2,949dan#2,938cap#2,929

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list