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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

oath.

A solemn pledge or promise that invokes a deity, a ruler, or another entity (not necessarily present) to attest the truth of a statement or sincerity of one's desire to fulfill a contract or promise.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈəʊθ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈoʊθ/General-American

  1. A solemn pledge or promise that invokes a deity, a ruler, or another entity (not necessarily present) to attest the truth of a statement or sincerity of one's desire to fulfill a contract or promise.

    take an oath
    swear an oath

  2. A statement or promise which is strengthened (affirmed) by such a pledge.

    After taking the oath of office, she became the country's forty-third premier.
    The generals swore an oath of loyalty to the country.

  3. A light, irreverent or insulting appeal to a deity or other entity.

  4. A curse, a curse word.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English ooth, oth, ath, from Old English āþ (“oath”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiþ (“oath”), from Proto-Germanic *aiþaz (“oath”). Cognate with Scots aith, athe (“oath”), North Frisian ith, iss (“oath”), Saterland Frisian Eed (“oath”), West Frisian eed (“oath”), Dutch eed (“oath”), German Eid (“oath”), Swedish ed (“oath”), Icelandic eið (“oath”), Latin ūtor (“make use of, employ, avail”, verb), Old Irish óeth (“oath”).

verb/ˈəʊθ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈoʊθ/General-American

  1. To pledge.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ooth, oth, ath, from Old English āþ (“oath”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiþ (“oath”), from Proto-Germanic *aiþaz (“oath”). Cognate with Scots aith, athe (“oath”), North Frisian ith, iss (“oath”), Saterland Frisian Eed (“oath”), West Frisian eed (“oath”), Dutch eed (“oath”), German Eid (“oath”), Swedish ed (“oath”), Icelandic eið (“oath”), Latin ūtor (“make use of, employ, avail”, verb), Old Irish óeth (“oath”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.