royalty
noun
roy·al·ty
| \ ˈrȯi(-ə)l-tē
\
\
plural royalties
Definition of royalty
1a
: royal status or power : sovereignty
b
: a right or perquisite of a sovereign (such as a percentage paid to the crown of gold or silver taken from mines)
2
: regal character or bearing : nobility
3a
: persons of royal lineage
b
: a person of royal rank
how to address royalties— George Santayana
c
: an elite class
4
: a right of jurisdiction granted to an individual or corporation by a sovereign
5a
: a share of the product or profit reserved by the grantor especially of an oil or mining lease
b
: a payment to an author or composer for each copy of a work sold or to an inventor for each item sold under a patent
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Synonyms for royalty
Synonyms
augustness, kingliness, majesty, stateliness
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Examples of royalty in a Sentence
It was an honor and a privilege to dine with royalty.
On our wedding day, we were treated like royalty.
Recent Examples on the Web
Yeager Airport receives royalties from two gas wells on airport property. — USA TODAY, "Cat burglar, prison bats, USS Arizona Memorial: News from around our 50 states," 4 Sep. 2019 Casinos in many states, including Nevada, have resisted the idea that states should require that sports books pay the leagues for data (or directly through royalties). — Kevin Draper, New York Times, "Sports Betting Has Arrived to Transform the N.F.L. Or Not.," 4 Sep. 2019 Rezafungin developed for drug-resistant fungal infections of Candida San Diego’s Cidara Therapeutics will get $30 million upfront and as much as $568 million, plus double-digit royalties in a deal to bring its flagship antifungal drug to market. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Cidara gets $30M upfront, possibly hundreds of millions more, for its antifungal drug," 4 Sep. 2019 Rejecting royalty What Americans did not want was another king. — Eliga Gould, The Conversation, "The American Founders made sure the president could never suspend Congress," 3 Sep. 2019 Song choice: Even with the pull of British film royalty Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis behind it, the movie only uses 16 of the Beatles’ songs — fewer than the amount of No. — Marcus Jones, EW.com, "Blinded by the Light," 29 Aug. 2019 Over $104 million of that was spent on subscription costs of revenue, and music royalty fees was the largest variable cost under that. — Sangeeta Singh-kurtz, Quartz, "Peloton is just Spotify, if Spotify mailed you a bike," 28 Aug. 2019 The second choice, Cal football coach Joe Kapp, wanted royalties on the title. — SI.com, "A History of Football in 100 Objects," 28 Aug. 2019 Presumably, Elliott's still earning healthy royalties from each. — Amy Mackelden, Harper's BAZAAR, "Missy Elliott's Net Worth Is Huge Thanks to a Career Spanning Three Decades," 26 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'royalty.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for royalty
royalty
noun
English Language Learners Definition of royalty
: members of a royal family
: an amount of money that is paid to the original creator of a product, book, or piece of music based on how many copies have been sold
: an amount of money that is paid by a mining or oil company to the owner of the land the company is using
See the full definition for royalty in the English Language Learners Dictionary
royalty
noun
roy·al·ty
| \ ˈrȯi-əl-tē
\
\
plural royalties
Kids Definition of royalty
1
: the status or power of a king or queen or his or her family
2
: members of the royal family of a king or queen
3
: a share of a product or profit (as of a mine) claimed by the owner for allowing another to use the property
4
: payment made to the owner of a patent or copyright for the use of it
royalty
noun
roy·al·ty
plural royalties
Legal Definition of royalty
1
: a right delegated (as to an individual or corporation) by a sovereign
2a
: a share of the profit or product reserved by the grantor especially of an oil or mineral lease — compare overriding royalty
b
: a payment made to an author or composer for each copy of a work sold or to an inventor for each article sold under a patent
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