royalty
Americannoun
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royal persons collectively.
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royal status, dignity, or power; sovereignty.
to be elevated to royalty.
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a person of royal lineage; member of a royal family.
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Archaic. royalties, prerogatives, rights, or symbolic emblems of a king, queen, or other sovereign.
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a royal domain; kingdom; realm.
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character or quality proper to or befitting a sovereign; nobility.
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the most well-known and admired member or members of a particular field or category.
Her parents are Hollywood royalty. The brand is royalty among champagnes.
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a compensation or portion of the proceeds paid to the owner of a right, as a patent or oil or mineral right, for the use of it.
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an agreed portion of the income from a work paid to its author, composer, etc., usually a percentage of the retail price of each copy sold.
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a royal right, as over minerals, granted by a sovereign to a person or corporation.
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the payment made for such a right.
noun
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the rank, power, or position of a king or queen
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royal persons collectively
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one who belongs to the royal family
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any quality characteristic of a monarch; kingliness or regal dignity
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a percentage of the revenue from the sale of a book, performance of a theatrical work, use of a patented invention or of land, etc, paid to the author, inventor, or proprietor
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of royalty
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English roialte, from Middle French, Old French roialté, derivative of roial; see origin at royal, -ty 2
Explanation
Royalty is a good word for describing a family of kings, queens, princes, and princesses. If you are in the music business, you may expect a payment, or royalty every time your song is played. How's that for royal treatment? The noun royalty means a group of royals, or kings and their extended families. Queen Elizabeth of England is a member of Britain's royalty, for example. You can also use royalty to describe the payment a writer receives whenever her book is sold, or that a musician gets when his song is played in a grocery store. The word comes from the Latin regalis, "regal," which in turn comes from rex, "king."
Vocabulary lists containing royalty
Economics
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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Frindle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
BHP says it won’t invest in the business due to an onerous royalty structure in Australia’s Queensland state, where it mines.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
Rock royalty is gearing up to descend on Donington Park for the 23rd Download festival.
From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026
The company produces steady cash flows from the royalty payments it gets from companies that drill for natural gas across its 3.4-million acre portfolio, and pays it back to shareholders.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
A legal settlement allowed Burke to sell merchandise with the marathon’s branding for an expected profit in the millions, as long as he also paid a royalty to the city.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2026
But when he left the game, my street royalty status ended.
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
