obligation
/ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.07 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A social, legal, or moral requirement, duty, contract, or promise that compels someone to follow or avoid a particular course of action.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A course of action imposed by society, law, or conscience by which someone is bound or restricted.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A legal agreement stipulating a specified action or forbearance by a party to the agreement; the document containing such agreement.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "I feel I'm under obligation to attend my sister's wedding, even though we have a very frosty relationship."
- "The only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast. The Constitution does not empower the Vice President to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise. How the Vice President discharges this constitutional obligation is not a question of his loyalty to the President any more than it would be a test of a President’s loyalty to his Vice President whether the President assented to the impeachment and prosecution of his Vice President for the commission of high crimes while in office. No President and no Vice President would—or should—consider either event as a test of political loyalty of one to the other. And if either did, he would have to accept that political loyalty must yield to constitutional obligation. Neither the President nor the Vice President has any higher loyalty than to the Constitution."
- "The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Diſcharged as to one, and ſtand as to all the reſt."
- "I am indebted to several friends for notes, observations, and correspondence on this subject, more especially to one, referred to as "Z.," and to another as "Q.," who have obtained a considerable number of reliable histories for me, and have also supplied many valuable notes [...]. Other obligations are mentioned in the text."
Etymology
From Middle English obligacioun, from Old French obligacion, from Latin obligatio, obligationem, from obligatum (past participle of obligare), from ob- (“to”) + ligare (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ- (“to bind”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *leyǵ-, obligacioun, obligacion, obligatio
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/
- British English: /ˌɒb.lɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/