obligatory

From Middle English obligatorie, from Latin obligatōrius.

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈblɪɡətɔɹi/, /ˈɑblɪɡətɔɹi/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈblɪɡət(ə)ɹi/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

obligatory (comparative more obligatory, superlative most obligatory)

1. Imposing obligation, legally, morally, or otherwise; binding; mandatory.

   an obligatory promise

   • 1673, Richard Baxter, Christian Directory:

     […] if he speak the words of an oath in a strange language, thinking they signify something else, or if he spake in his sleep, or deliration, or distraction, it is no oath, and so not obligatory.

   • 2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 12:

     [I]t was something that every schoolboy of my generation almost `had' to do, as obligatory a proof of impending manliness as scrumping apples or pulling girls' pigtails.

2. Requiring a matter or obligation.

• bounden
• mandatory

• optional

• “obligatory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

obligatory

1. Alternative form of obligatorie