Bonus
nounAn extra payment or benefit added to what is normally expected or due.
How to spell bonus
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce bonus
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does bonus mean?
- nounAn extra payment or benefit added to what is normally expected or due.
Bonus in a sentence
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The staff received a generous bonus at the end of the year.
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A free upgrade was offered as a bonus for booking early.
Where does bonus come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word comes directly from the Latin bonus, meaning simply 'good'. In Roman usage it was the masculine form of the adjective, and English speakers borrowed it whole in the early 1700s, originally as slang among stock traders for an extra payment or dividend handed out on top of what was due. The sense of 'something good given in addition' grew naturally from that core meaning of goodness, and by the nineteenth century it was settled business vocabulary for an extra reward. The same Latin root sits behind the female name Bonita and the phrase bona fide, literally 'in good faith'. Because it kept its tidy Latin shape, bonus is spelled exactly as it looks, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to trip the writer.
How the word is built
- bonus (from Latin bonus: good); used in English as a noun
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