different between obliged vs mandatory

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??bla?d?d/
• Hyphenation, UK: ob?liged; US: obliged

Adjective

obliged (comparative more obliged, superlative most obliged)

1. Under an obligation to do something.

   All employees are obliged to complete a tax return every year.

2. Grateful or indebted because of a favor done.

   I'm greatly obliged for your help with this problem.

Usage notes

In sense “under obligation”, synonymous with obligated, though the latter is only used in American English and some dialects such as Scottish, not standard British.

In dialects where both obliged and obligated are used, there is no standard distinction drawn, though individuals may distinguish nuance or use idiosyncratically. In technical discussions, particularly legal ones such as The Concept of Law by H. L. A. Hart (1961), the words may carry different meanings, such as obligations inherent to a relationship versus ones externally imposed.

The "grateful or indebted" sense is considered dated in some contexts.

Synonyms

• (under obligation): obligated

Translations

Verb

obliged

1. simple past tense and past participle of oblige

References

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