user fee

noun

: an excise tax often in the form of a license or supplemental charge levied to fund a public service

called also user's fee

Examples of user fee in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Starting with the staff reductions ordered at the USCIS (which is funded by user fees, not tax dollars). Billal Rahman dan Gooding, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 July 2025 Those decisions included rejections of conservative challenges to Obamacare and to a federal subsidy program for internet and phone services for poor and rural communities that is funded by user fees. Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 5 July 2025 While gas taxes once resembled a user fee, the decline in revenues means states are increasingly drawing from their general fund to finance road maintenance and repairs. Tirzah Duren, Boston Herald, 8 July 2025 In this case, whichever private partner TDOT works with would receive the user fees from the toll lanes in exchange for financing the project. Austin Hornbostel, The Tennessean, 29 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for user fee

Word History

First Known Use

1967, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of user fee was in 1967

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“User fee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/user%20fee. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!