bonus

Borrowed from Latin bonus (“good”). Doublet of bona.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊ.nəs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈboʊ.nəs/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊnəs
• Hyphenation: bo‧nus

bonus (plural bonuses or bonusses or (nonstandard) boni)

1. Something extra that is good; an added benefit.
2. An extra sum given as a premium, e.g. to an employee or to a shareholder.
   • 2009 February 14, “Letters: Time to sack the bonus culture”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 December 2024:

     I was a bank manager in the 1970s, but I never received or expected to receive a bonus for doing my paid work.

   • 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist‎^[2], volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 19 April 2020, page 70:

     Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

   The employee of the week receives a bonus for his excellent work.

3. (video games) An addition to the player's score based on performance, e.g. for time remaining.
   • 1988, David Powell, Rygar (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 25

     Spend the time killing things and there's a bonus for each hit - but only for fatalities notched up since the start of your current life.

4. (basketball) One or more free throws awarded to a team when the opposing team has accumulated enough fouls.

• → Danish: bonus
• → French: bonus
• → German: Bonus
• → Portuguese: bónus / bônus
• → Japanese: ボーナス (bōnasu)
• → Turkish: bonus

bonus (third-person singular simple present bonuses or bonusses, present participle bonusing or bonussing, simple past and past participle bonused or bonussed)

1. (transitive) To pay a bonus, premium
   • 1949, Land Values Research Group, Reclamation of an Industrial Suburb:

     In its adherence to a system of rating which bonusses the most anti-social owners and penalises those doing something to improve the district, the municipality must accept a large measure of responsibility.

   • 1964, Translations on USSR Labor, United States Joint Publications Research Service, page 22:

     The main bulk of the piece-workers (71%) are bonussed for fulfillment of the production quotas by the section, shop or plant on condition they fulfill the norms.

   • 1991, Bruce S. Elliott, The City Beyond: A History of Nepean, Birthplace of Canada’s Capital, 1792-1990, Corporation of the City of Nepean, →ISBN, page 130:

     Extracting grants called bonusses from municipal councils had become a fine art in the hands of railway promoters, and by the 1870s councils were aware that huge municipal debts could be mounted up by bonussing railway lines that as often as not never materialized.

• Bonsu, bo'sun, bosun, bouns

Borrowed from Latin bonus.

• IPA^(key): [ˈbonus]
• Hyphenation: bo‧nus

bonus m inan

1. bonus

• “bonus”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “bonus”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Via English bonus from Latin bonus (“good”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥oːnus]

bonus c (singular definite bonussen, plural indefinite bonusser)

1. bonus (an extra sum given as a premium, e.g. to an employee or to a shareholder)
2. bonus (an unexpected benefit)
3. bonus (an extraordinary reduction of a price)

Borrowed from Latin bonus (“good”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈboː.nʏs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bo‧nus

bonus m (plural bonussen or boni, diminutive bonusje n)

1. a bonus, an extra or premium
2. (by extension) Any one-off gain
3. good marks in a rating scale, notably to calculate an insurance premium dependent on the number of accidents

• → Indonesian: bonus
• → Sranan Tongo: bones
  • → Caribbean Javanese: bones

• IPA^(key): /ˈbonus/
• Rhymes: -onus
• Syllabification: bo‧nus

bonus

1. conditional of boni

Borrowed from English bonus or Latin bonus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbo(ː)nus/, [ˈbo̞(ː)nus̠]
• Rhymes: -onus
• Syllabification^(key): bo‧nus
• Hyphenation^(key): bo‧nus

bonus

1. bonus (something extra)
2. bonus (extra payment to an employee)

• (something extra): ekstra, lisäetu, plussa
• (employee bonus): kannustuspalkkio, tulospalkkio

• “bonus”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

English bonus, from Latin bonus. Compare bon (“good”), a doublet inherited from the same Latin word.

• IPA^(key): /bɔ.nys/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

bonus m (uncountable)

1. premium
2. bonus

• malus

• “bonus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Dutch bonus, from Latin bonus (“good”).

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈbonus/ [ˈbo.nʊs]
• Rhymes: -onus
• Syllabification: bo‧nus

bonus (plural bonus-bonus)

1. bonus; something extra that is good; an added benefit
2. bonus; an extra sum given as a premium, e.g. to an employee or to a shareholder

   Synonyms: gratifikasi, insentif

• “bonus”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Unadapted borrowing from Latin bonus, either through English or influenced by English. Compare the inherited doublet buono (“good”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.nus/
• Rhymes: -ɔnus
• Hyphenation: bò‧nus

bonus m (invariable)

1. a bonus (all senses)

Inherited from Old Latin duonus, from earlier duenos, from Proto-Italic *dwenos, further etymology uncertain. Possibly cognate with beō (“to bless, gladden”).^[1] Possible roots include:

• Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to join, fit together”); compare Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan, “to do, make”) and Ancient Greek δύναμαι (dúnamai, “to be able”).^[1]
• Proto-Indo-European *deh₃-u, from *deh₃- (“to give”).^[1]
• Proto-Indo-European *dew- (“to show favor, revere”)
• Proto-Indo-European *dwey- (“to fear”), source of Ancient Greek δέος (déos), δεινός (deinós), δειλός (deilós).

Compare the change from duellum to bellum, and from duis to bis.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈbɔ.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈbɔː.nus]

bonus (feminine bona, neuter bonum, comparative melior, superlative optimus or optumus, adverb bene); first/second-declension adjective

1. good, honest, brave, noble, kind, pleasant

   Antonym: malus

2. right
3. useful
4. valid
5. healthy
6. quality

First/second-declension adjective.

• bonitās
• cui bonō

bonus m (genitive bonī); second declension

1. A good, moral, honest or brave man
2. A gentleman

Second-declension noun.

• “bonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “bonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "bonus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “bonus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[4], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be robust, vigorous: bonis esse viribus
    
  • who gets the advantage from this? who is the interested party: cui bono?
    
  • moral science; ethics: philosophia, in qua de bonis rebus et malis, deque hominum vita et moribus disputatur
    
  • to have good lungs: bonis lateribus esse
    
  • to be brave, courageous: bono animo esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to possess means, to be well off: rem or opes habere, bona possidere, in bonis esse
    
  • to be very rich: opibus, divitiis, bonis, facultatibus abundare
    
  • to drive a person out of house and home: evertere aliquem bonis, fortunis patriis
    
  • disinherited: exheres paternorum bonorum (De Or. 1. 38. 175)
    
  • the aristocracy (as a party in politics): boni cives, optimi, optimates, also simply boni (opp. improbi); illi, qui optimatium causam agunt
    
  • justly and equitably: ex aequo et bono (Caecin. 23. 65)
    
  • (ambiguous) to meet with good weather: tempestatem idoneam, bonam nancisci
    
  • (ambiguous) to enjoy good health: bona (firma, prospera) valetudine esse or uti (vid. sect. VI. 8., note uti...)
    
  • (ambiguous) to reward amply; to give manifold recompense for: bonam (praeclaram) gratiam referre
    
  • (ambiguous) to have a good or bad reputation, be spoken well, ill of: bona, mala existimatio est de aliquo
    
  • (ambiguous) to be gifted, talented (not praeditum esse by itself): bona indole (always in sing.) praeditum esse
    
  • (ambiguous) he is a young man of great promise: adulescens alios bene de se sperare iubet, bonam spem ostendit or alii de adulescente bene sperare possunt
    
  • (ambiguous) to take a thing in good (bad) part: in bonam (malam) partem accipere aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to be brave, courageous: bonum animum habere
    
  • (ambiguous) to consider virtue the highest good: summum bonum in virtute ponere
    
  • (ambiguous) natural advantages: naturae bona
    
  • (ambiguous) to recover one's reason, be reasonable again: ad bonam frugem se recipere
    
  • (ambiguous) may heaven's blessing rest on it: quod bonum, faustum, felix, fortunatumque sit! (Div. 1. 45. 102)
    
  • (ambiguous) to bless (curse) a person: precari alicui bene (male) or omnia bona (mala), salutem
    
  • (ambiguous) to possess means, to be well off: rem or opes habere, bona possidere, in bonis esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to squander all one's property: lacerare bona sua (Verr. 3. 70. 164)
    
  • (ambiguous) to confiscate a person's property: bona alicuius publicare (B. G. 5. 54)
    
  • (ambiguous) to restore to a person his confiscated property: bona alicui restituere
    
  • (ambiguous) allow me to say: bona (cum) venia tua dixerim
    

Borrowed from English bonus or Latin bonus.

bonus m (definite singular bonusen, indefinite plural bonuser, definite plural bonusene)

1. a bonus

• “bonus” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Borrowed from English bonus or Latin bonus.

bonus m (definite singular bonusen, indefinite plural bonusar, definite plural bonusane)

1. a bonus

• “bonus” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English bonus, itself from Latin bonus. Doublet of bun (inherited from Latin), bon, and bonă (both borrowed from French).

bonus n (plural bonusuri)

1. bonus

Borrowed from English bonus, from Latin bonus. Compare the doublet bueno (“good”), inherited from the same Latin word.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbonus/ [ˈbo.nus]
• Rhymes: -onus
• Syllabification: bo‧nus

bonus m (plural bonus)

1. bonus

• “bonus”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Borrowed from Latin bonus.

bonus c

1. bonus (an extra sum given as a premium)

• “bonus”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)