obedience

See also: obédience

English

Alternative forms

• oboedience (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Anglo-Norman obedience, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French obedience (modern French obédience), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin oboedientia. Cognate with obeisance.

Pronunciation

• 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.

   • Thomas Jefferson

     Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VIII

     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

• hearsomeness (nonce word)
• submission

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)
• Arabic: طَاعَة f (ṭāʕa)

  Egyptian Arabic: طاعة f (ṭāʕa)

• Armenian: հնազանդություն (hy) (hnazandutʻyun)
• Asturian: obediencia f
• Azerbaijani: itaət
• Belarusian: паслухмя́насць f (pasluxmjánascʹ)
• Bulgarian: подчине́ние (bg) n (podčinénie), поко́рство (bg) n (pokórstvo)
• Catalan: obediència
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 百依百順／百依百顺 (zh) (bǎiyībǎishùn), 百依百顺 (zh) (bǎiyībǎishùn), 服從／服从 (zh) (fúcóng), 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)

• Hebrew: צַיְתָנוּת f (tzaytanut)
• Hungarian: engedelmesség (hu)
• Indonesian: kepatuhan (id)
• Interlingua: obedientia
• Irish: umhlaíocht
• Italian: obbedienza (it) f
• Japanese: 服従 (ja) (fukujū), 恭順 (kyōjun), 順守 (junshu)
• Korean: 복종 (ko) (bokjong)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kurdish:
• Latvian: paklausība, rātnība
• Macedonian: послушност f (poslušnost)
• Mongolian: дуулгавар (mn) (duulgavar), дуулгавартай байдал (duulgavartaj bajdal)
• Norwegian: lydighet (no)
• Old English: ġehīersumnes f
• Persian: رامی (fa) (râmi)
• Polish: posłuszeństwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: obediência (pt) f
• Romanian: ascultare (ro)
• Russian: послуша́ние (ru) n (poslušánije), поко́рность (ru) f (pokórnostʹ), подчине́ние (ru) n (podčinénije), повинове́ние (ru) n (povinovénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: покорност f, послушност f

  Roman: pokornost (sh) f, poslušnost (sh) f

• Slovak: poslušnosť f
• Slovene: poslušnost f
• Spanish: obediencia (es) f
• Swahili: taa (sw)
• Swedish: lydnad (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagsunod
• Telugu: విధేయత (te) (vidhēyata)
• Thai: การเชื่อฟัง (th) (gaan chêua fang)
• Turkish: itaat (tr)
• Ukrainian: покі́рність f (pokírnistʹ), послу́шність f (poslúšnistʹ), поко́ра f (pokóra)
• Uyghur: itaet
• Vietnamese: sự nghe lời (vi)
• Welsh: ufudd-dod
• Westrobothnian: ,
• 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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Further reading

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

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Old French

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin

Noun

obedience oblique singular, 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