What it means
شهریه (shahriye) means tuition fee, or more broadly any regular institutional payment, especially for school or university enrollment. The word is borrowed directly from Arabic شَهْرِيَّة (šahriyya), itself derived from the Arabic word for month, شَهْر (shahr), with the Arabic attributive suffix -iyya forming the meaning “monthly payment” or “that which belongs to the month.” Note that the Arabic شَهْر (month) is a separate word from the Persian شهر (shahr, city); the two happen to share the same written and spoken form in Persian but have unrelated origins. Over time شهریه specialized in Persian to mean the fee paid to a school or educational institution. In everyday spoken Persian, شهریه is the standard, neutral term: there is no common pure Persian alternative in circulation. A close but broader synonym is حقالزحمه (hagh-ol-zahme), meaning fee for labor or service, but it does not carry the school-specific sense.
How to use it
- شهریه دانشگاه گرون شده (shahriye-ye dâneshgâh gerun shode) “University tuition has gotten expensive.”
- شهریه رو تا کی باید بدیم؟ (shahriye ro tâ key bâyad bedim?) “By when do we have to pay the tuition?”
- مدرسه دولتیه، شهریه نداره (madrese dowlati-ye, shahriye nadâre) “It is a public school, it has no tuition fee.”
- شهریهام رو پدرم میده (shahriye-am ro pedar-am mide) “My father pays my tuition.”
Cultural note
Iranian public schools (مدارس دولتی) are officially free, so شهریه is associated primarily with private schools (مدارس غیرانتفاعی) and private universities, including the sprawling Azad University network. Since the 1980s the expansion of private education in Iran has made شهریه a frequent topic of family financial planning, and the phrase «شهریهات رو دادی؟» (Have you paid your tuition?) is a familiar parental question at the start of each semester. The cost of شهریه at private universities in Iran has risen sharply since the 2010s, making it a point of public debate about access to higher education.