| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| fidelity |
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| SYLLABICATION: | fi·del·i·ty |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f -d l -t , f - |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. fi·del·i·ties
1. Faithfulness to obligations, duties, or observances. 2. Exact correspondence with fact or with a given quality, condition, or event; accuracy. 3. The degree to which an electronic system accurately reproduces the sound or image of its input signal. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English fidelite, from Old French, from Latin fidlit s, from fidlis, faithful, from fids, faith. See bheidh- in Appendix I. | | SYNONYMS: | fidelity, allegiance, fealty, loyalty These nouns denote faithfulness. Fidelity implies the unfailing fulfillment of one's duties and obligations and strict adherence to vows or promises: fidelity to one's spouse. Allegiance is faithfulness considered as a duty: “I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance…. The Union, Sir, is my country” (Henry Clay). Fealty, once applied to the obligation of a tenant or vassal to a feudal lord, now suggests faithfulness that one has pledged to uphold: swore fealty to the laws of that country. Loyalty implies a steadfast and devoted attachment that is not easily turned aside: loyalty to an oath; loyalty to one's family.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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