SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
obligation
noun
A duty or commitment that a person is expected or bound to fulfill.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Duty or binding commitment
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topAn obligation may arise from an agreement, a role, or a moral claim; indebtedness specifically concerns owing something.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See obligation in use
The grant carried an obligation to make the research summary publicly available.
As the film group's submission coordinator, Rosa considered it incumbent on her to tell everyone which version would be sent. She had also accepted an obligation to credit each contributor in the final titles, a commitment made when the project began.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license