Meanings
tax1
plural taxes
- countableuncountableMoney or goods collected by a government (or an entity to whom the government has delegated this power, e.g. in tax farming) to fund itself and its services, for example by levying a charge on income, purchases (sales), property or harvest, other than that money which is collected by the government in exchange for specific goods (e.g. the purchase of surplus vehicles).
[They paid a] "mushroom tax" in addition to their regular tax of butter and meat. They had to give 1 dre of dried mushrooms annually to the district administrative centres.
2008, Kunzang Choden, Chilli and Cheese: Food and Society in Bhutan, page 1472 more examples
The [General Farm] organization collected a tax on salt (gabelle) and another on alcohol and tobacco (aide), along with customs duties (traites) and duties on goods entering Paris from elsewhere in France (entrées). Evasion of all of these taxes through smugglign and other fraud was epidemic[…]
2010 December 6, Madison Smartt Bell, Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (Great Discoveries), W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 5In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19Synonyms: impost, tribute, contribution, duty, toll, rate, assessment, exaction · Antonyms: subsidy
- countableuncountableA charge (of money, food, labor, etc) collected by a person, organization, etc; something required (exacted) from someone who is (really or notionally) under the control of the taxer, such as a contribution or service.
Flie far from hence All private taxes, immodest phrases, What e'r may but shew like vicious.
1616–1618, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)1 more example
Scrambled egg with cheese [...] careful with the cheese here because it is the main reason for Roxie's runs... [but] We pay a lot of cheese tax in the house [i.e., when we eat cheese, the dog demands to also be given some].
2023 November 20, Kates Kennery, Pet Cook Book First Edition - Dog and Cat fresh food options plus meals, Kates Kennery - figurativelyuncountableA burdensome demand
a heavy tax on time or health
2 more examples
In the expectation that such would be the case, I came but slightly attended, sending most of my people with the heavy baggage by sea to the Indus, and I took every precaution to render the tax of my support as light as possible, by furnishing a memorandum of the number of persons composing my suite, and limiting the amount of supplies each should receive.
1843, Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons - Volume 39, page 234The extent of the traffic is a tax on the existing yard in the area at Frodingham, the busiest in the District.
1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 128
tax2
present singular third person taxes · participle present taxing · participle past taxed · past taxed
- transitiveTo impose and collect a tax from (a person or company).
Some think to tax the wealthy is the fairest.
1 more example
Taxing the food and chemical industries, which make billions off our food consumption, could be another way to generate revenue for the program.
2018, Kristin Lawless, Formerly known as food, →ISBN, page 251 - transitiveTo impose and collect a tax on (something).
Some think to tax wealth is destructive of a private sector.
- transitiveTo make excessive demands on.
Do not tax my patience.
3 more examples
The people of the southeasterly clusters—concerning whom, however, but little is known—have a bad name as cannibals; and for that reason their hospitality is seldom taxed by the mariner.
1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLCThe heavy freight traffic which shares the double line between Paddington and Wolverhampton with the passenger traffic has taxed the ingenuity of the timetable planners.
1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 103But patent applications are increasingly accompanied by volumes and volumes of data on DVD, which taxes the resources of the patent office.
2007 January 16, “IBM - Reinventing the invention system - United States”, in IDEAS from IBM - transitiveTo accuse.
- transitiveTo examine accounts in order to allow or disallow items.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounMoney or goods collected by a government (or an entity to whom the government has delegated this power, e.g. in tax farming) to fund itself and its services, for example by levying a charge on income, purchases (sales), property or harvest, other than that money which is collected by the government in exchange for specific goods (e.g. the purchase of surplus vehicles).
More synonyms by meaning
nouncharge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
tax · noun
- Medieval Latintaxa
- Middle Frenchtaxe
- Middle Englishtaxe
- Englishtax
From Middle English taxe, from Middle French taxe, from Medieval Latin taxa, from Latin taxō (“to appraise, value, estimate; (medieval) to tax”). Doublet of task. Displaced native Old English gafol, which was also the word for “tribute” and “rent”.
More words from Middle English, Middle French, Medieval Latin
Full word history & related roots →tax · verb
- Latintaxāre“to handle, to censure, to appraise, to compute”
- Anglo-Normantaxer“to impose a tax”
- Middle Englishtaxen
- Englishtax
From Middle English taxen, from Anglo-Norman taxer (“to impose a tax”), from Latin taxāre (“to handle, to censure, to appraise, to compute”).
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans belasting
- belastingmoney paid to the government
Ancient Greek τέλος
- τέλος (télos)money paid to the government
Arabic ضَرِيبَة
- ضَرِيبَة (ḍarība)money paid to the government
Basque zerga
- zergamoney paid to the government
Bengali কর
- কর (kor)money paid to the government
Bulgarian нало́г, да́нък
- нало́г (nalóg)money paid to the government
- да́нък (dánăk)money paid to the government
- облагам (oblagam)to impose and collect a tax
Catalan impost, taxa
- impostmoney paid to the government
- taxamoney paid to the government
- gravarto impose and collect a tax
Chinese Cantonese 稅 /税
- 稅 /税 (seoi³)money paid to the government
Chinese Mandarin 稅 /税, 徵稅 /征税
- 稅 /税 (shuì)money paid to the government
- 徵稅 /征税 (zhēngshuì)to impose and collect a tax
Czech daň, danit
- daňmoney paid to the government
- danitto impose and collect a tax
Danish skat, beskatte
- skatmoney paid to the government
- beskatteto impose and collect a tax
Dutch belasting, taks
- belastingmoney paid to the government
- taksmoney paid to the government
- belasting heffento impose and collect a tax
Esperanto imposto, imposti
- impostomoney paid to the government
- impostito impose and collect a tax
Estonian maks
- maksmoney paid to the government
Finnish vero, verottaa
- veromoney paid to the government
- verottaato impose and collect a tax
French impôt, imposer
- impôtmoney paid to the government
- imposerto impose and collect a tax
- taxerto impose and collect a tax
German Steuer, strapazieren
- Steuermoney paid to the government
- strapazierento make demands on
- belastento make demands on
- besteuernto impose and collect a tax
Greek φόρος, φορολογώ
- φόρος (fóros)money paid to the government
- φορολογώ (forologó)to impose and collect a tax
Hebrew מַס
- מַס (mas)money paid to the government
Hindi कर, टैक्स
- कर (kar)money paid to the government
- टैक्स (ṭaiks)money paid to the government
- उगाही (ugāhī)to impose and collect a tax
Hungarian adó, megadóztat
- adómoney paid to the government
- megadóztatto impose and collect a tax
Icelandic skattur
- skatturmoney paid to the government
Indonesian pajak, cukai
- pajakmoney paid to the government
- cukaimoney paid to the government
Irish cáin, cíos
- cáinmoney paid to the government
- cíosmoney paid to the government
Italian tassa, imposta
- tassamoney paid to the government
- impostamoney paid to the government
- accisamoney paid to the government
- tassareto impose and collect a tax
Japanese 税, 税金
- 税 (zei)money paid to the government
- 税金 (zeikin)money paid to the government
- 租税 (sozei)money paid to the government
Korean 세금, 세
- 세금 (segeum)money paid to the government
- 세 (se)money paid to the government
- 조세 (jose)money paid to the government
Latin vectīgal, geldum
- vectīgalmoney paid to the government
- geldummoney paid to the government
- gabellamoney paid to the government
Latvian nodoklis
- nodoklismoney paid to the government
Lithuanian mokestis
- mokestismoney paid to the government
Malay cukai
- cukaimoney paid to the government
Māori tāke, tāke
- tākemoney paid to the government
- tāketo impose and collect a tax
Norwegian skattelegge
- skatteleggeto impose and collect a tax
Norwegian Bokmål skatt, avgift
- skattmoney paid to the government
- avgiftmoney paid to the government
Polish podatek, opodatkowywać
- podatekmoney paid to the government
- opodatkowywaćto impose and collect a tax
- opodatkowaćto impose and collect a tax
Portuguese imposto, tributo
- impostomoney paid to the government
- tributomoney paid to the government
- tributarto impose and collect a tax
- taxarto impose and collect a tax
Romanian taxă, impozit
- taxămoney paid to the government
- impozitmoney paid to the government
- daremoney paid to the government
Russian нало́г, сбор
- нало́г (nalóg)money paid to the government
- сбор (sbor)money paid to the government
- по́шлина (póšlina)money paid to the government
- дань (danʹ)money paid to the government
- по́дать (pódatʹ)money paid to the government
- чрезме́рно напряга́ть (črezmérno naprjagátʹ)to make demands on
- чрезме́рно утомля́ть (črezmérno utomljátʹ)to make demands on
- истоща́ть (istoščátʹ)to make demands on
- подверга́ть испыта́нию (podvergátʹ ispytániju)to make demands on
Scottish Gaelic càin, cìs
- càinmoney paid to the government
- cìsmoney paid to the government
Slovak daň
- daňmoney paid to the government
Spanish impuesto, tasa
- impuestomoney paid to the government
- tasamoney paid to the government
- gabelamoney paid to the government
- taxmoney paid to the government
- mitamoney paid to the government
- alfardamoney paid to the government
- catastromoney paid to the government
- conduchomoney paid to the government
- alcabalamoney paid to the government
- sisamoney paid to the government
- asignar impuestosto impose and collect a tax
- cobrar gabelasto impose and collect a tax
- gravarto impose and collect a tax
Swahili ushuru, kodi
- ushurumoney paid to the government
- kodimoney paid to the government
Swedish skatt, beskatta
- skattmoney paid to the government
- beskattato impose and collect a tax
Tagalog buwis
- buwismoney paid to the government
Tamil வரி
- வரி (vari)money paid to the government
Thai ภาษี
- ภาษี (paa-sǐi)money paid to the government
Turkish vergi, salma
- vergimoney paid to the government
- salmamoney paid to the government
Ukrainian пода́ток, оподатко́вувати
- пода́ток (podátok)money paid to the government
- оподатко́вувати (opodatkóvuvaty)to impose and collect a tax
- оподаткува́ти (opodatkuváty)to impose and collect a tax
Urdu مالِیات, ٹَیکْس
- مالِیات (māliyāt)money paid to the government
- ٹَیکْس (ṭaiks)money paid to the government
- مَحْصُول (mahsūl)money paid to the government
- باج (bāj)money paid to the government
- خَراج (xarāj)money paid to the government
Vietnamese thuế
- thuếmoney paid to the government
Welsh treth, trethu
- trethmoney paid to the government
- trethuto make demands on
- trethuto impose and collect a tax
Yiddish שטײַער
- שטײַער (shtayer)money paid to the government
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with tax
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
tax. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tax
“tax.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tax. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tax,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tax.
Source: tax on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.