Meaning & use
fulfilment
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Meanings
noununcountable
A feeling of deep happiness and satisfaction because your life or work feels meaningful and complete.
Grammar: Uncountable, so no plural and no 'a' before it: a sense of fulfilment, not 'a fulfilment'.
Patterns
- a sense of fulfilment
- find fulfilment in something
- fulfilment from doing something
She gets a real sense of fulfilment from teaching children to read.
After years in a boring office job, he finally found fulfilment working with his hands.
For many people, fulfilment matters more than a big salary.
noununcountableformal
The act of doing what you promised, or of meeting a duty, order, or condition.
Grammar: Often used in formal and business writing about promises, orders, and conditions.
Patterns
- the fulfilment of a promise
- fulfilment of an order
- fulfilment of a duty
The company is responsible for the fulfilment of every order within three days.
He saw the fulfilment of his promise as a matter of personal honour.
Fulfilment of the contract depends on both sides meeting the deadlines.
noununcountablebusiness
The process of packing and sending goods that customers have ordered, especially for an online shop.
Grammar: A business term; it usually appears before another noun, as in a fulfilment centre.
Patterns
- order fulfilment
- a fulfilment centre
- fulfilment services
The retailer opened a new fulfilment centre to ship orders faster.
She works in fulfilment, packing and labeling parcels all day.
Outsourcing fulfilment helped the small shop cope with Christmas demand.
Common combinations
- a sense of fulfilment
- Volunteering gave him a strong sense of fulfilment.
- find fulfilment in something
- She found fulfilment in caring for her elderly parents.
- personal fulfilment
- Many workers now put personal fulfilment before promotion.
- the fulfilment of a promise
- Voters are still waiting for the fulfilment of that promise.
- order fulfilment
- Better order fulfilment cut the number of complaints in half.
- emotional fulfilment
- He looked for emotional fulfilment rather than excitement.
Synonyms and how they differ
- satisfaction
- Satisfaction is the pleasure of having your needs or expectations met, and can be quite short-lived; fulfilment suggests a deeper, lasting sense that your life has meaning.
- contentment
- Contentment is a calm, quiet acceptance of what you have, while fulfilment usually comes from actively doing something worthwhile.
- achievement
- Achievement focuses on the thing you have done, such as passing an exam; fulfilment focuses on the inner feeling it leaves you with.
Opposites
Word family
- fulfill verb
- To do what you promised, or to satisfy a need or condition.
- fulfilling adjective
- Making you feel happy and satisfied, as in a fulfilling career.
- fulfilled adjective
- Feeling happy and complete because your life feels meaningful.
- unfulfilled adjective
- Not yet achieved, or not feeling satisfied with life.
- self-fulfilment noun
- The process of developing your own abilities and finding personal satisfaction.
Commonly confused: fulfilment or fulfillment?
fulfilment vs fulfillment
This is simply the American spelling with two 'l's; fulfilment with one 'l' is the usual British form. They mean exactly the same thing.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'fulfilment' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Fulfilment' in this sense is uncountable, so it takes no article and no plural: 'real fulfilment'. Option 1 wrongly adds 'a', option 3 wrongly makes it plural, and option 4 uses 'of' where the feeling comes from the job itself.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fulfilment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.