obligation.
The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone.
Meaning & usage
The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone.
A social, legal, or moral requirement, duty, contract, or promise that compels someone to follow or avoid a particular course of action.
I feel I'm under obligation to attend my sister's wedding, even though we have a very frosty relationship.
A course of action imposed by society, law, or conscience by which someone is bound or restricted.
A legal agreement stipulating a specified action or forbearance by a party to the agreement; the document containing such agreement.
Reason for being obliged to, that is, grateful for, something.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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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.