Meaning & use

obedience

noun·Academic

Compliance with an order, rule, or authority, or the practice of following instructions willingly.

See it in a sentence

The recruits were trained to show immediate obedience to every command from their officers.

The dog's obedience improved greatly after several weeks of consistent training.

A note on using this word

Obedience implies following rules set by another, while compliance can also describe simply meeting a standard or regulation, without a personal authority figure.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

defiancedisobedience

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