Gratuity

//ɡɹəˈtuːətɪ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An additional payment given freely as thanks for service.

    "service gratuity"

  2. 2
    an award (as for meritorious service) given without claim or obligation wordnet
  3. 3
    Euphemistic form of fee, in contexts where such additional payments have been made obligatory. euphemistic, form-of
  4. 4
    a relatively small amount of money given for services rendered (as by a waiter) wordnet
  5. 5
    Euphemistic form of bribe. euphemistic, form-of

Synonyms

All synonyms
tipbaksheeshlagniappepourboiredoledouceur

Example

More examples

"At one time, the gratuity couldn't be removed, but in recent years, passengers were allowed to "adjust" it at their discretion."

Etymology

From Middle French gratuité (from Old French gratuite) or directly from Medieval Latin gratuitas (“a free gift”), from Latin gratuitus (“freely given, free”); see gratuitous.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.