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compliance

noun

Simple meaning

A disposition or tendency to yield to the will of others.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhmplyuhns

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kəmpˈlaɪəns

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A disposition or tendency to yield to the will of others

  2. uncountable

    The tendency of conforming with or agreeing to the wishes of others.

  3. uncountable

    The state of being compliant.

  4. uncountablebusiness

    The department of a business that ensures all government regulations are complied with.

  5. The act of submitting; usually surrendering power to another

  6. An act of complying.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A disposition or tendency to yield to the will of others

Used this way, compliance is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

lung complianceensure compliancefull compliancepatient compliancestrict compliancevoluntary compliancesubstantial compliancecompliance costs

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • complimentnounDerived noun

    A remark (or act) expressing praise and admiration.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: disposition

noncompliance

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.