Commitment

How to spell commitment

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce commitment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commitment mean?

1. nounA firm promise, obligation, or dedication to a person, cause, or course of action.

Commitment in a sentence

• Buying a house is a serious financial commitment for most couples.

• Her commitment to the project never wavered, even during the busiest weeks.

Where does commitment come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The core of this word is the Latin verb mittere, meaning 'to send' or 'to let go', which gave English the verb 'commit' through the form committere, literally 'to send together', and so 'to entrust' or 'to bring together'. By the 1300s 'commit' had developed senses ranging from entrusting something to someone's care to formally consigning a person to prison or to a course of action. The abstract noun 'commitment' was built later, around the early 1600s, by attaching the noun-forming suffix '-ment' to that verb, first in the legal sense of consigning someone to custody and then broadening to mean a pledge, obligation, or dedication. The same mittere root quietly powers a large family of English words, including 'mission', 'transmit', 'permit', and 'submit', all carrying that idea of sending. The spelling trap is purely about the consonants: 'commit' doubles its final 't' when you add '-ted' or '-ting' because the stress falls on the last syllable, but '-ment' begins with a consonant, so the 't' is NOT doubled in 'commitment', and the double 'm' from 'com-' must be kept.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• mit (Latin mittere: to send)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)