fee / fē/ • n. 1. a payment made to a professional person or to a professional or public body in exchange for advice or services. ∎  money paid as part of a special transaction, e.g., for a privilege or for admission to something: an admission fee. ∎  (usu. fees) money regularly paid (esp. to a school or similar institution) for continuing services: high tuition fees.2. hist. Law an estate of land, esp. one held on condition of feudal service.

fee estate in land (orig. on feudal tenure); payment for services or privileges. XIV. — AN. fee = OF. feu, fi(e)u, (also mod.) fief, pl. fiez :- Rom. *feudum, medL. feodum, feudum, perh. — Frankish *fehuōd ‘cattle-property’, i.e. OHG. fehu (G. vieh) = OE. feoh, cogn. with L. pecu, pecus (cf. PECULIAR), and ōd, as in allodium. Cf. FIEF.

FEE

A compensation paid for particular acts, services, or labor, generally those that are performed in the line of official duties or a particular profession. An interest in land; an estate of inheritance.

An estate is an interest in land, and a fee, in this sense, is the shortened version of the phrase fee simple. A fee simple is the greatest estate that an individual may have in the land because it is total ownership of the land including all structures attached thereto. It is complete ownership absent all conditions, limitations, or restrictions upon alienation, which is its sale or transfer to another.