different between obligatory vs mandatory

English

Etymology

From Middle English obligatorie, from Latin obligat?rius.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??bl???t??i/, /??bl???t??i/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /??bl???t(?)?i/

Adjective

obligatory (comparative more obligatory, superlative most obligatory)

1. Imposing obligation, legally, morally, or otherwise; binding; mandatory.
   • 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.
2. Requiring a matter or obligation.

Synonyms

• bounden
• mandatory

Antonyms

• optional

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• obligatory in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Middle English

Adjective

obligatory

1. Alternative form of obligatorie

English

Etymology

From Late Latin mandatorius (“of or belonging to a mandator”), from mandator (“one who commands”); see mandate.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mæn.d?.t(?)?i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?mæn.d??t?.?i/

Adjective

mandatory (comparative more mandatory, superlative most mandatory)

1. Obligatory; required or commanded by authority.

   Attendance at a school is usually mandatory for children.

   • 1999, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind, page 276

     This kind of immediate control structure we take to be characteristic of the tribe, and it leads to a rather rigid type of system in which 'every action not mandatory is forbidden'.

   • 2011, Dirk Bünger, Deficits in EU and US Mandatory Environmental Information Disclosure: Legal, Comparative Legal and Economic Facets of Pollutant Release Inventories, Springer Science & Business Media ?ISBN, page 57

     It also discusses the access to legal instruments for enforcement with regard to mandatory disclosure of environmental information.

2. Of, being or relating to a mandate.

   Mandatory Palestine

Synonyms

• (required or commanded by authority): compulsory, obligatory; See also Thesaurus:compulsory
• (relating to a mandate):

Antonyms

• (required or commanded by authority): optional, elective; See also Thesaurus:optional
• (relating to a mandate):

Derived terms

• mandatoriness
• mandatorily

Translations

Noun

mandatory (plural mandatories)

1. (disc golf) A sign or line that require the path of the disc to be above, below or to one side of it.

   Synonym: (colloquial) mando

2. (dated, rare) A person, organisation or state who receives a mandate; a mandatary.

Further reading

• mandatory in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mandatory in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
• The Oxford English Dictionary

Anagrams

• damnatory