Obedience

How to spell obedience

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce obedience

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does obedience mean?

1. nounWillingness to follow rules, orders, or the wishes of someone in authority.

Obedience in a sentence

• The army demands strict obedience from every recruit.

• The dog completed its obedience training at the local club.

Where does obedience come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin oboedientia, meaning 'compliance' or 'a willingness to obey'. That noun was built on the verb oboedire, 'to obey', which combined ob- ('toward' or 'in the direction of') with audire, 'to hear' or 'to listen'. The literal idea was therefore 'to listen toward' someone, that is, to give ear to a command and act on it, a vivid reminder that obeying began as a matter of attentive listening. English took the word in during the 1200s by way of Old French obedience, and it has carried its sense of dutiful submission ever since. The same audire root lives on in everyday relatives such as 'audio', 'audience' and 'audition', and noticing that hidden 'audi' listening element can help fix the soft, easily slurred middle of the spelling.

How the word is built

• ob- (toward, in the direction of)
• oed/ed (from Latin audire, to hear or listen)
• -ience (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)