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• bounty
  bounty

  noun

  a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government.
• Bounty
  Bounty

  noun

  a British naval ship commanded by Captain William Bligh, which was on a scientific voyage in 1789 between Tahiti and the West Indies when her crew mutinied

bounty

American  

[boun-tee] / ˈbaʊn ti /

noun

plural

bounties

1. a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government.

   There was a bounty on his head. Some states offer a bounty for dead coyotes.

2. a generous gift.

   Synonyms:

   benefaction, present

3. generosity in giving.

   Synonyms:

   munificence, beneficence, charity, liberality

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bounty ¹ British  

/ ˈbaʊntɪ /

noun

1. generosity in giving to others; liberality

2. a generous gift; something freely provided

3. a payment made by a government, as, formerly, to a sailor on enlisting or to a soldier after a campaign

4. any reward or premium

   a bounty of 20p for every rat killed

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Bounty ² British  

/ ˈbaʊntɪ /

noun

1. a British naval ship commanded by Captain William Bligh, which was on a scientific voyage in 1789 between Tahiti and the West Indies when her crew mutinied

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Usage

What does bounty mean? A bounty is a reward, especially one offered in an official way for the capture of someone or something. This sense of the word most often refers to the reward sought by bounty hunters for tracking down and capturing fugitive criminals (or, in older times, killing them). A more recent use of the word refers to the reward offered for identifying a software vulnerability in a company’s or organization’s system. In a broader sense, the word bounty means a generous gift or generosity in general. This sense of the word is most often used in a poetic way, such as referring to crops as the bounty of the land. The H. M. S. Bounty, the ship aboard which the notorious mutiny occurred, was probably named after this sense of the word. Example: The bounty offered for the capture of Billy the Kid was $500—dead or alive.

Related Words

See bonus.

Other Word Forms

• bountyless adjective

Etymology

Origin of bounty

1200–50; Middle English b ( o ) unte < Anglo-French, Old French bonte, Old French bontet < Latin bonitāt- (stem of bonitās ) goodness. See boon ², -ity

Explanation

If there is bounty on your table, it means you have a wide variety and large quantity of food. If there's a bounty on your head, it means the government has put out a reward for your capture. Bounty derives from the Latin bonus "good." Both meanings of bounty are connected with the idea of generosity, giving. A government known for its bounty will probably set a large bounty on the head of a murderer at large.

Example Sentences

A few months later, the Dutch National Cyber Security Center mailed him his bounty: a black T-shirt.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

The official had heard about the bug bounty Brundage got from the Dutch government years ago and had a question: “What’s a good address to mail you a t-shirt, and what’s your size?”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Yet, beneath this statistical bounty lies more troubling arithmetic.

From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026

Over the course of three Sundays, Image contributing photographer Jennelle Fong captured stylish visitors with their bounty at the venerated Hollywood Farmers Market.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2026

“Well, what about a bounty hunter named Rick Deckard?”

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Related Words

• donation
• gift
• largess
• premium
• prize
• reward