terms of service

plural noun

: the legal terms (see term entry 1 sense 4) that set forth the nature, scope, and limits of a service (such as one offered through a website or an app) and the rules that the service's users must agree to follow

… Twitter users' complaints alerted the company that three of his messages violated the terms of service …

—Jake Tapper

… most people have no idea what is signed away when they click "agree" to binding terms of service contracts—again and again on phones, laptops, tablets, watches, e-readers and televisions.

—The New York Times

—abbreviation TOS

Examples of terms of service in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Kalshi’s terms of service and exchange rules prohibit market manipulation and insider trading. — Joshua Hong, Fortune, 9 Aug. 2026

Facebook's social graph was built by three billion people handing over their interests in exchange for a service priced at zero, with the terms of service doing the accounting. — Jon Markman, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026

Participants are solely responsible for creating and maintaining their Yahoo account and complying with Yahoo’s applicable terms of service. — The Athletic, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2026

In its legal defense, Meta pointed out that its terms of service prohibit users from using its AI products to generate images containing pornography. — Alex Reisner, The Atlantic, 24 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for terms of service

• interservice
• disservice
• preservice
• nervous
• nervus