The Gratis reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Gratis

Helping orphans the way you would do it

Gratis is a term in Latin and various Romance and Germanic languages (e.g. English, Spanish, French, Danish, German, Norwegian, Dutch) meaning free, in the sense that you don't have to pay a thing for getting something (free of charge).

In hacker jargon, another common term for gratis is free as in beer, to contrast with libre or free as in speech. (See also free software)