loyalty
Americannoun
noun
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the state or quality of being loyal
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(often plural) a feeling of allegiance
Synonym Usage
Loyalty, allegiance, fidelity all imply a sense of duty or of devoted attachment to something or someone. Loyalty connotes sentiment and the feeling of devotion that one holds for one's country, creed, family, friends, etc. Allegiance applies particularly to a citizen's duty to their country, or, by extension, one's obligation to support a party, cause, leader, etc. Fidelity implies unwavering devotion and allegiance to a person, principle, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of loyalty
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English loialte, from Middle French. See loyal, -ty 2
Explanation
A person who feels loyalty to a nation, cause, or person feels a sense of allegiance, commitment, dedication toward them. Loyalty is — you guessed it! — the quality of being loyal. People demonstrate their loyalty to a sports team by cheering for it, win or lose. People demonstrate their loyalty to a political party by voting only for the people of that party. Brand loyalty is the notion (or hope) that once consumers identify strongly with a particular brand or product, like a car or computer, they'll stick with that brand or maker when it comes time to buy new products.
Vocabulary lists containing loyalty
American Naturalization Test, List 2
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Allegiant
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Medieval Christendom, Lessons 3–5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As I wrote at the time, missives of public loyalty from cabinet ministers towards a prime minister shouldn't be newsworthy and they only become so when the opposite seems feasible.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Doing so keeps the Constitution at the center of our popular democratic culture, renewing our loyalty to the document and our sense of its relevance.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
Carriers are also giving priority to bundled services, like combining phone and home internet, as a new play for customer loyalty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Corporate loyalty often clouds financial judgment,” Prince said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Instead they expressed their loyalty to the Nazi government by staging a pro-Nazi demonstration in front of the university just two hours after the executions of Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
To find out if I was alone, I travelled across the capital meeting people whose loyalties are shaped by more than one country.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
And as dramatists, they’re uniquely positioned to appreciate the conflicted loyalties and communal tensions of American life in dramatic rather than dogmatic terms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Success requires breaking through large customers’ loyalties and Nvidia’s defensive moats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Every significant criminal case eventually becomes a vessel into which the country pours its anxieties, fears, loyalties, and grievances.
From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2026
“I took the Spider’s coin, I’ll not deny it, but I was never his creature. And my loyalties lie elsewhere now.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
