Fulfillment

How to spell fulfillment

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce fulfillment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fulfillment mean?

1. nounA deep feeling of satisfaction from developing one's abilities or achieving what one hoped for.
2. nounThe act of completing, carrying out, or satisfying something such as an order, promise, or requirement.

Fulfillment in a sentence

• She found real fulfillment in mentoring younger colleagues at the firm.

• The warehouse handles order fulfillment for several online retailers.

• A steady salary brought security but little fulfillment.

• Timely fulfillment of the contract terms protected both parties.

Where does fulfillment come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word traces back to the Old English verb fullfyllan, which meant 'to fill up' or 'to make completely full', formed from full ('full') and fyllan ('to fill'). The verb originally carried a very physical sense of topping something up to the brim, and only gradually took on the figurative meaning of carrying out a duty, a promise, or a desire. The abstract noun was created later by adding -ment, a suffix English absorbed from French and ultimately Latin (-mentum) that turns a verb into a noun naming its result or state. The double l in the middle is the spelling trap: the verb 'fulfil' is built from 'full' plus 'fill', but writers drop letters at the join, so it helps to remember the two l's belong to 'fill'. By the modern period the word had split into two everyday uses, the practical completing of something and the inner sense of satisfaction.

How the word is built

• ful- (full)
• -fill- (to fill, from Old English fyllan)
• -ment (noun of result or state)

British and American spelling

Fulfillment is the American spelling. British English spells it fulfilment.