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 service …

—Jake 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

Such a scenario could represent a violation of OpenAI’s terms of service and potentially its intellectual property. —Tor Constantino, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2025

Our community guidelines and terms of service explicitly prohibit harassment or discrimination. —Flynn Nicholls, Newsweek, 29 Jan. 2025

However, OpenAI’s terms of service bar users from using the data obtained through distillation to build competing AI products. —Julia Shapero, The Hill, 29 Jan. 2025

Include contact information, a privacy policy and a terms of service page. —Lisa Montenegro, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for terms of service

• interservice
• disservice
• preservice
• nervous
• nervus