Word.ws English Dictionary

duty

/ˈdjuː.ti/

duty noun: that which one is morally or legally obligated to do.

Noun

duty (countable and uncountable, plural duties)

  1. That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
    • Do your duty by me! -No, we don't have a duty to keep you abreast.
    • England expects that every man will do his duty.1805, 21 October, Horatio Nelson
    Synonyms:
    obligation
  2. (uncountable) The state of being at work and responsible for or doing a particular task.
    • I’m on duty from 6 pm to 6 am.
  3. (countable) An excise tax; especially, one on imports or exports.
    • customs duty
    Synonyms:
    excise duty
  4. (obsolete) One's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.
    • Take that which is thy duty, and goo thy waye.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew
  5. (obsolete) Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.
    • my duty to you1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • It [the letter] was written with a plain, unaffected, homely piety that I knew to be genuine, and ended with ‘my duty to my ever darling’—meaning myself.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC
  6. The efficiency of an engine in work done per unit of fuel; particularly, the number of pounds of water which a steam pumping engine can raise one foot by burning one bushel or hundredweight of coal.
  7. (euphemistic) The act of urination or defecation, especially for a dog.
    • The basic idea in housebreaking is not to wait until the puppy sins and then punish him; it is to call nature to your aid and thus make it easy for him to do his duty.1927, Will Judy, “Housebreaking”, in Training the Dog, page 23

Proper noun capitalized: Duty

Duty (plural Dutys)

  1. A surname.

duty meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

duty in Hindi

that which one is morally or legally obligated to do
कृत्य kŕtya, कर्तव्य kartavya, उत्तरदायित्व uttardāyitva
tax; tariff
कर kar

duty in Tamil

that which one is morally or legally obligated to do
கடமை kaṭamai

duty in Marathi

duty
कर्तव्य kartavya

duty in Urdu

that which one is morally or legally obligated to do
واجِب vājib
More languagesFewer languages
duty in Bengali
ফরজ phoroj, কর্তব্য kortobbo, কাজ kaj
duty in Telugu
ధర్మము dharmamu, విధి vidhi
duty in Malayalam
കടമ kaṭama, ജോലിസമയം jōlisamayaṁ, തീരുവ tīruva
duty in Kannada
ಕರ್ತವ್ಯ kartavya, ಧರ್ಮ dharma, ಕರ್ಮ karma
duty in Punjabi
ਫ਼ਰਜ਼ faraz
duty in Gujarati
ફરજ pharaj, સુન્નત sunnat
duty in Odia
କର୍ମ karma, ଅଧିକାର adhikāra
duty in Sanskrit
कर्तव्य kartavya, धर्म dharma
duty in Nepali
कर्तव्य
duty in Arabic
وَاجِب wājib, وَظِيفَة waẓīfa, رَسْم rasm
duty in Thai
กิจ kìt, งาน ngaan, หน้าที่ nâa-tîi
duty in Vietnamese
nhiệm vụ, trách nhiệm, chức trách, nghĩa vụ

Examples of duty in a sentence

  • He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Were I not completely aware of my duty to my family and to my country, I would not have come back tonight…or indeed ever again!1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn):
  • British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins.2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

All 40 example sentences with duty

Synonyms of duty

Antonyms

Forms of duty

Noun
pluralduties
alternative formdutie
Proper noun
pluralDutys

Plural of duty: duties

Origin of duty

From Middle English duete, from Middle English dewe + Middle English -te. Equivalent to due + -ty.

Words formed from duty

Phrases with duty

21 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with duty

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about duty

What does duty mean?
Duty means that which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
What is duty in Hindi?
Duty in Hindi is कृत्य (kŕtya), कर्तव्य (kartavya), उत्तरदायित्व (uttardāyitva). See Duty meaning in Hindi.
How do you use duty in a sentence?
He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
What part of speech is duty?
Duty can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce duty?
Duty is pronounced /ˈdjuː.ti/.
What is the plural of duty?
The plural of duty is duties.

Words near duty in the dictionary

  1. Dutton/Dunwich
  2. duttonite
  3. Duttons
  4. dutty
  5. dutuburi
  6. duty
  7. duty ace
  8. duty aces
  9. duty bound
  10. duty calls
  11. duty card

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duty (page history and authors); Duty (page history and authors); कर्तव्य (Marathi) (page history and authors); কর্তব্য (Bengali) (page history and authors); ధర్మము (Telugu) (page history and authors); ಕರ್ತವ್ಯ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਫ਼ਰਜ਼ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ફરજ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଅଧିକାର (Odia) (page history and authors); duty (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-duty.ogg, en-us-duty.ogg.

Cite this entry: “duty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.