terms of service

plural noun

: the legal terms (see term entry 1 sense 4) that set forth the nature, scope, and limits of a service (such as one offered through a website or an app) and the rules that the service's users must agree to follow
… Twitter users' complaints alerted the company that three of his messages violated the terms of serviceJake Tapper
… most people have no idea what is signed away when they click "agree" to binding terms of service contracts—again and again on phones, laptops, tablets, watches, e-readers and televisions.The New York Times
abbreviation TOS

Examples of terms of service in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Always do everything by the book and follow all of Amazon’s terms of service. Duffy Young, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024 The new terms of service also say that any disputes with the company will be brought before the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas — where a judge-slash-Tesla-investor was presiding over multiple lawsuits involving Musk and his companies. Mia Sato, The Verge, 18 Oct. 2024 The new terms of service, which go into effect on Nov. 15, spell out the new policies. Rob Pegoraro, PCMAG, 18 Oct. 2024 Separately, updates to X’s terms of service have also caused alarm, particularly around how data is used to train artificial intelligence models. Mia Sato, The Verge, 18 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for terms of service 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terms of service.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of terms of service was in 1994

Dictionary Entries Near terms of service

Cite this Entry

“Terms of service.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terms%20of%20service. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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