Uurimaks

Uurimaks is an Estonian noun that refers to a fee charged for an investigation or inquiry. The word is formed from the verb uurima (to investigate) combined with the suffix -maks, which denotes a fee or charge. The term is relatively rare in everyday language and tends to appear in formal, administrative, or historical texts rather than in ordinary speech.

Use and context. Uurimaks may designate charges for services related to investigations conducted by authorities, regulatory bodies, or private entities. Typical contexts include police or court-ordered investigations, regulatory audits, forensic analyses, or commissions for specialized research. In such usage, the accompanying phrase often uses uurimaksu in the genitive case, as in “uurimaksu maksmine” (payment of the investigation fee) or “uurimaksu suurus” (the amount of the investigation fee).

Relation to related terms. Uurimaks is related to uurimine (the act of investigating) and uurimiskulud (investigation costs). While uurimine describes the process and scope of inquiry, and uurimiskulud refers to the broader costs associated with an investigation, uurimaks specifically denotes the fee charged for the investigative service itself.

Notes. Given its specialized nature, the term may be encountered in legal documents, procurement contracts, or bureaucratic language. It is advisable to distinguish it from more general terms for costs or fees in Estonian, such as kulud or tasu, and to use the exact form uurimaksu or uurimaks in appropriate grammatical contexts.