obligate
verb · adjective
Simple meaning
Cause to be indebted.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ahbluhgaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɑbləɡeɪt
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Bind by an obligation; cause to be indebted
transitive
To bind, compel, constrain, or oblige by a social, legal, or moral tie.
adjective
Indispensable; essential; necessary; obligatory; mandatory; unavoidably invoked.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Bind by an obligation; cause to be indebted
Used this way, obligate is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It turns up most in ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Grateful and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Where it naturally appears
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use obligate
- “An obligate anaerobe can survive only in the absence of oxygen.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Caused by law or conscience to follow a certain course.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An organism that cannot grow in the presence of oxygen.
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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.