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say it: ah-bluh-GAY-shuhn
obligation is a noun meaning "the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force". It is pronounced /ˌɑbləˈɡeɪʃən/ — ah-bluh-GAY-shuhn. It carries 5 recorded senses.
the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force
“we must instill a sense of duty in our children”
“every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty”
the state of being obligated to do or pay something
“he is under an obligation to finish the job”
a personal relation in which one is indebted for a service or favor
a written promise to repay a debt
a legal agreement specifying a payment or action and the penalty for failure to comply
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for obligation come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.