noun
fee
An estate in land that can be inherited.
The deed gives her a fee simple in the land.
Etymology
The legal word fee developed from a term for a feudal holding. Its land-law sense preserves the idea of an estate held with inheritable rights.
More examples
- Unlike a life estate, a fee can pass to heirs.
- The family holds the property in fee.
- A fee tail restricts inheritance to a particular line of heirs.
Forms
fee · fees
Similar words
- estate
- A broader property interest that need not be inheritable.
- freehold
- Includes both inheritable estates and estates lasting only a lifetime.