fief

American  

[feef] / fif /

noun

1. a fee or feud held of a feudal lord; a tenure of land subject to feudal obligations.

2. a territory held in fee.

3. fiefdom.

---

fief British  

/ fiːf /

noun

1. (in feudal Europe) the property or fee granted to a vassal for his maintenance by his lord in return for service

---

fief Cultural  

1. Under feudalism, a landed estate given by a lord to a vassal in return for the vassal's service to the lord. The vassal could use the fief as long as he remained loyal to the lord.

---

Etymology

Origin of fief

1605–15; < French, variant of Old French fieu, fie, cognate with Anglo-French fe fee < Germanic; compare Old High German fihu, Old English feoh cattle, property; akin to Latin pecū flock of sheep, pecus cattle, pecūnia wealth

Example Sentences

The move is an acknowledgment that bringing in an outsider to create a new AI fief at Apple ultimately failed the key test of success at Apple: delivering products that consumers want to buy.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 2, 2025

To end the practice of treating church positions like a fief to be passed on to the officeholder’s children, priests were told to practice celibacy and were forbidden to marry.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya as a fief, would be unacceptable to the elite.

From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2022

He served as a key adviser to the strongman who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country as a fief for nearly three decades — and then, in 2019, became his heir.

From New York Times • Jan. 8, 2022

The ceremony was of a preliminary nature, securing that the fief would not be alienated; but the vassal had to take the oath of fealty, and to be formally invested, when he reached his majority.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 5 "Hinduism" to "Home, Earls of" by Various