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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

onus.

A legal obligation.

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈəʊnəs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈoʊnəs/US
  1. A legal obligation.

    countable · uncountable
    The onus is on the landlord to make sure the walls are protected from mildew.
  2. Burden of proof, onus probandi.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Stigma.

    countable · uncountable
  4. Blame.

    countable · uncountable
    He'll always bear the onus of having caused the accident.
  5. Responsibility; burden.

    countable · uncountable
    The onus is on those who disagree with my proposal to explain why.
    The onus is on you to make the first move.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃en(H)- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃én(H)os Proto-Italic *onos Latin onuslbor. English onus Learned borrowing from Latin onus (literally “burden”).

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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.