commitment

commit +‎ -ment

• IPA^(key): /kəˈmɪtmənt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧mit‧ment

commitment (countable and uncountable, plural commitments)

1. The act or an instance of committing, putting in charge, keeping, or trust, especially:
   1. The act of sending a legislative bill to committee for review.
   2. Official consignment sending a person to prison or a mental health institution.
2. Promise or agreement to do something in the future, especially:
   1. Act of assuming a financial obligation at a future date.
3. Being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons.
4. The trait of sincerity and focused purpose.
   • 2020 November 23, Charles Hugh Smith, Why I'm Hopeful About 2021‎:

     Citizenship in the original Greek concept was not simply the granting of rights to do as one pleased;
     it also demanded a commitment to serve the interests of the many via personal sacrifice.
     

5. Perpetration as in a crime or mistake.
6. State of being pledged or engaged.
7. The act of being locked away, such as in an institution for the mentally ill or in jail.

• commit
• committal
• noncommittal

• → Portuguese: cometimento

• “commitment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “commitment”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.