- Royalty is defined as a person or a group of people related to a monarch, or a share of the proceeds paid to the owner for use of their work or their ownership rights.
- An example of royalty is a king.
- An example of royalty is a payment to a music composer.
royalty definition by Webster's New World
noun pl. royalties
- the rank, status, or power of a king or queen; royal position, dignity, etc.; sovereignty
- a royal person or, collectively, royal persons
- Archaic a royal domain or realm; kingdom
- royal quality or character; nobility, magnanimity, etc.
- Archaic a right, privilege, or prerogative of a monarch
- Rare
- a royal right, as over some natural resource, granted by a monarch to a person, corporation, etc.
- payment for such a right
- a share of the proceeds or product paid to the owner of a right, as a patent, for permission to use it or operate under it
- such a share paid to one from whom lands rich in oil or minerals are leased
- a share of proceeds, usually a specified percentage, paid for the work of an author, composer, etc. by the publisher
Origin: Middle English roialte ; from Old French ; from Midieval Latin regalitas ; from Classical Latin regalis, regal
royalty definition by American Heritage Dictionary
noun pl. roy·al·ties
- a. A person of royal rank or lineage.b. Monarchs and their families considered as a group.
- The lineage or rank of a monarch.
- The power, status, or authority of a monarch.
- Royal quality or bearing.
- A kingdom or possession ruled by a monarch.
- A right or prerogative of the crown, as that of receiving a percentage of the proceeds from mines in the royal domain.
- a. The granting of a right by a monarch to a corporation or an individual to exploit specified natural resources.b. The payment for such a right.
- a. A share paid to a writer or composer out of the proceeds resulting from the sale or performance of his or her work.b. A share in the proceeds paid to an inventor or a proprietor for the right to use his or her invention or services.
- A share of the profit or product reserved by the grantor, especially of an oil or mining lease. Also called override.
royalty - Business Definition
The compensation that is paid to the owner of an asset based on income earned by the asset's user. For example, an oil company pays royalties to the owners of mineral rights, and a book publisher compensates its authors with royalty payments.
royalty - Cultural Definition
A payment made for some right or privilege, as when a publisher pays a royalty to an author for the author's granting the publisher the right to sell the author's book.
royalty - Investment & Finance Definition
A payment made for the right to use an asset, invention, or creation calcu-lated as a percentage of the sale price. For example, the holder of a valuable natural resource may receive a royalty from a company that extracts the resource; the amount of the royalty payment depends on the amount of the resource that the company is able to extract. An author may receive a royalty each time one of his or her books sells.
The compensation that is paid to the owner of an asset based on income earned by the asset's user. For example, an oil company pays royalties to the owners of mineral rights, and a book publisher compensates its authors with royalty payments.
royalty - Legal Definition
n
- A payment made to the creator of an intellectual property (author, inventor, and so on) for each copy of the property that is sold.
- A share of the profit derived from real property that is reserved for the owner in exchange for granting a lessee, who is going to mine or drill the mineral rights on that land.
