Meaning & use
fidelity
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
Steady loyalty to a person, group or cause, especially a partner who stays faithful in a relationship.
Grammar: Usually followed by to: fidelity to a promise.
Patterns
- fidelity to someone
- fidelity to something
Marital fidelity was an important value for the couple.
The soldiers swore fidelity to their commander.
Her fidelity to the company never wavered, even in hard years.
noununcountabletechnical
The degree to which a copy matches its original, especially in sound, images or a translation.
Grammar: Often seen in technical talk: audio fidelity.
Patterns
- fidelity to something
- fidelity of something
The new speakers reproduce music with remarkable fidelity.
The translator was praised for her fidelity to the original text.
The film shows great fidelity to the novel's setting.
Common combinations
- marital fidelity
- Vows often include a promise of marital fidelity.
- fidelity to
- He showed fidelity to his principles.
- high fidelity
- The record was made in high fidelity.
- sound fidelity
- Sound fidelity matters to serious music fans.
- swear fidelity
- The knights swore fidelity to the king.
Synonyms and how they differ
- loyalty
- Loyalty is the everyday word for standing by someone, while fidelity sounds more formal and often implies a promise.
- faithfulness
- Faithfulness is plainer and is used for people, while fidelity also describes accuracy of copies.
- accuracy
- Accuracy refers only to being correct, whereas fidelity means closeness to the original.
- allegiance
- Allegiance is loyalty to a ruler, country or cause, not to a partner.
Opposites
Word family
- infidelity noun
- unfaithfulness, especially to a partner
- hi-fi noun
- short for high-fidelity sound equipment
- fidelities noun
- plural, rarely used
- fidelity noun
- from Latin fidelis, meaning faithful
Commonly confused: fidelity or fiduciary? fidelity or fidelity vs. fidget?
fidelity vs fiduciary
Fiduciary describes a duty of trust, usually in finance, and is not about loyalty in general.
fidelity vs fidelity vs. fidget
Fidget is to move restlessly; it has no link to loyalty.
Practice
The translator's fidelity to the original poem means she ___.
Choose one answer.
Fidelity means closeness to the original. The other options describe changing, skipping or replacing the original text.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fidelity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.