royalty

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal +‎ -ty.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɔɪəlti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

royalty (countable and uncountable, plural royalties)

1. The rank, status, power or authority of a monarch.
2. People of royal rank, plus their families, treated as a group.
   • 2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A royal occasion as heritage projects honoured: Wolferton”, in RAIL, number 972, page 61:

     Wolferton was an important station on the Kings Lynn-Hunstanton line, which closed in 1969. As the station was convenient for the Sandringham estate, it was regularly patronised by royalty, and royal retiring rooms were provided.

3. A royal right or prerogative, such as the exploitation of a natural resource; the granting of such a right; payment received for such a right.
4. The payment received by an owner of real property for exploitation of mineral rights in the property.
5. (by extension) Payment made to a writer, composer, inventor etc for the sale or use of intellectual property, invention etc.
6. (authorship) To make more money from a book than it cost to run an advertising campaign for it; to make enough in royalties to cover the advance a book received.
   • 2014, Richard Curtis, Mastering the Business of Writing:

     Until the total of advances in that contract has been earned out by royalties from any or all books in that contract, the author will not receive additional royalties.

7. (figuratively) Someone in a privileged position.
   • 2016 June 27, Daniel Taylor, “England humiliated as Iceland knock them out of Euro 2016”, in The Guardian‎^[1], London:

     England will have another manager for the next World Cup, Hodgson’s reign will be defined by a result comparable to losing to the United States in the 1950 World Cup and the now-familiar inquest will begin again in a country that likes to see itself as football royalty.

   • 2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The Biden large-donor scene, where Mr. Katzenberg is treated as royalty himself, has been devastated since Mr. Biden’s debate performance two weeks ago.

8. (poker, slang) A king and a queen as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.
9. (Scotland, historical) The bounds of a royal burgh.

• → Danish: royalty
• → German: Royalty
• → Italian: royalty
• → Norwegian Bokmål: royalty
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: royalty
• → Portuguese: royalty
• → Swedish: royalty

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

royalty f (plural royalties)

1. royalty (all senses)

• “royalty”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English royalty.

royalty m (invariable)

1. royalty (payment)

• royalty in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

From English royalty.

royalty m (definite singular royaltyen, indefinite plural royaltyer or royalties, definite plural royaltyene)

1. a royalty (payment)

• “royalty” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “royalty” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From English royalty.

royalty m (definite singular royaltyen, indefinite plural royaltyar or royalties, definite plural royaltyane)

1. a royalty (payment)

• “royalty” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Unadapted borrowing from English royalty.

• Rhymes: -ɔjɐwt͡ʃi, -ɔjɐlti
• Hyphenation: roy‧al‧ty

royalty m (plural royalties)

1. (economics, chiefly in the plural) royalty (amount paid to the holder of a patent or registered trademark, or to the author of a work, in order to allow its use and commercialization)
2. (chiefly in the plural) royalty (payment made to the owner as compensation or indemnity for the use of the land where oil is explored or some mining activity is carried out)

• “royalties”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024
• “royalty”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024