obedience

obedience

See also: obédience

English

Alternative forms

• oboedience (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

From Middle English obedience, from Anglo-Norman obedience, from Old French obedience (modern French obédience), from Latin oboedientia. Displaced native Old English hīersumnes. Cognate with obeisance.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːdɪəns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

obedience (countable and uncountable, plural obediences)

1. The quality of being obedient.

   Obedience is essential in any army.

   • February 24, 1823, Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mr. Edward Everett

     Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., OCLC 18478577; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, OCLC 988016180:

     Cautioning Nobs to silence, and he had learned many lessons in the value of obedience since we had entered Caspak, I slunk forward, taking advantage of whatever cover I could find...

2. The collective body of persons subject to any particular authority.
3. A written instruction from the superior of an order to those under him.
4. Any official position under an abbot's jurisdiction.

Synonyms

• submission, the German vice; hearsomeness (nonce word)

Antonyms

• disobedience, defiance, rebellion (ignoring)
• violation (ignoring, especially rules)
• control, dominance (ruling)

Related terms

• obedient
• obeisance
• obey

Translations

quality of being obedient

Albanian: bindje (sq) f Arabic: طَاعَة‎ f (ṭāʿa), إِطَاعَة‎ f (ʾiṭāʿa) Egyptian Arabic: طاعة‎ f (ṭāʿa) Armenian: հնազանդություն (hy) (hnazandutʿyun) Asturian: obediencia f Azerbaijani: itaət Belarusian: паслухмя́насць f (pasluxmjánascʹ), пако́рнасць f (pakórnascʹ), пако́ра f (pakóra), пако́рлівасць f (pakórlivascʹ) Bulgarian: подчине́ние (bg) n (podčinénie), поко́рство (bg) n (pokórstvo) Catalan: obediència Cherokee: ᎪᎯᏳᎯ (gohiyuhi) Chinese: Mandarin: 百依百順／百依百顺 (zh) (bǎiyībǎishùn), 服從／服从 (zh) (fúcóng) Czech: poslušnost (cs) f Danish: lydighed (da) c Dutch: gehoorzaamheid (nl) f Esperanto: obeemo Estonian: sõnakuulelikkus Faroese: lýdni n Finnish: kuuliaisuus (fi) French: obéissance (fr) f Galician: obediencia f Georgian: მორჩილი (morčili) German: Gehorsam (de) m, Folgsamkeit (de) f, Gehorsamkeit f Greek: υπακοή (el) f (ypakoḯ), πειθαρχία (el) f (peitharchía) Ancient: ὑπακοή f (hupakoḗ), πειθαρχία (peitharkhía) Hebrew: צַיְתָנוּת‎ f (tsaytanut) Hindi: अनुपालन (hi) m (anupālan), आज्ञाकारिता f (āgyākāritā), इताअत (hi) f (itāat) Hungarian: engedelmesség (hu) Indonesian: kepatuhan (id) Interlingua: obedientia Irish: umhlaíocht Italian: obbedienza (it) f Japanese: 服従 (ja) (ふくじゅう, fukujū), 恭順 (ja) (きょうじゅん, kyōjun), 順守 (ja) (じゅんしゅ, junshu) Kazakh: бағындыру (bağyndyru), бағыну (kk) (bağynu) Korean: 복종(服從) (ko) (bokjong) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: guhdarî (ku) Kyrgyz: бойсунуучулук (ky) (boysunuuçuluk) Latin: oboedientia f Latvian: paklausība f, rātnība f Lithuanian: paklusnumas m, paklusimas m Macedonian: послушност f (poslušnost) Malayalam: അനുസരണം (ml) (anusaraṇaṃ) Mongolian: Cyrillic: дуулгавар (mn) (duulgavar), дуулгавартай байдал (duulgavartaj bajdal) Norwegian: Bokmål: lydighet (no) m or f Old English: hīersumnes f Persian: رامی‎ (fa) (râmi), اطاعت‎ (fa) (etâ'at) Polish: posłuszeństwo (pl) n Portuguese: obediência (pt) f Romanian: ascultare (ro), supunere (ro) Russian: послуша́ние (ru) n (poslušánije), поко́рность (ru) f (pokórnostʹ), подчине́ние (ru) n (podčinénije), повинове́ние (ru) n (povinovénije) Sanskrit: अरमति (sa) f (aramati) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: поко́рно̄ст f, послу́шно̄ст f Roman: pokórnōst (sh) f, poslúšnōst (sh) f Slovak: poslušnosť f Slovene: poslušnost f Spanish: obediencia (es) f Swahili: taa (sw) Swedish: lydnad (sv) c Tagalog: pagsunod Tajik: итоат (itoat), фармонбардорӣ (farmonbardorī), итоаткорӣ (itoatkorī) Telugu: విధేయత (te) (vidhēyata) Thai: การเชื่อฟัง (th) (gaan-chʉ̂ʉa-fang) Turkish: itaatkârlık, itaatlilik Ukrainian: покі́рність f (pokírnistʹ), послу́шність f (poslúšnistʹ), поко́ра f (pokóra), слухня́ність f (sluxnjánistʹ), послухня́ність f (posluxnjánistʹ) Urdu: اطاعت‎ f (itā'at) Uyghur: ئىتائەت‎ (ita'et) Uzbek: boʻysunish, itoat (uz) Vietnamese: sự nghe lời (vi) Welsh: ufudd-dod Westrobothnian: lydn m, lidn m Yiddish: פֿאָלגן‎ (folgn) Yoruba: igboran

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Hindi: (please verify) agya palana, (please verify) pharmabaradari

Further reading

• obedience in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• obedience in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

---

Old French

Etymology

From Latin.

Noun

obedience f (oblique plural obediences, nominative singular obedience, nominative plural obediences)

1. obedience
2. authority; influence; power

   Il comaunda par obedience Ke de la femme s’en issist

   He commanded by his authority that it (the evil spirit) come out of her