responsibility

American  

[ri-spon-suh-bil-i-tee] / rɪˌspɒn səˈbɪl ɪ ti /

noun

• responsibilities
  plural

1. the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.

   Synonyms:

   accountability, answerability

2. an instance of being responsible.

   The responsibility for this mess is yours!

3. a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible.

   the responsibilities of authority.

4. a person or thing for which one is responsible.

   A child is a responsibility to their parents.

5. reliability or dependability, especially in meeting debts or payments.

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idioms

1. on one's own responsibility, on one's own initiative or authority.

   He changed the order on his own responsibility.

responsibility British  

/ rɪˌspɒnsəˈbɪlɪtɪ /

noun

1. the state or position of being responsible

2. a person or thing for which one is responsible

3. the ability or authority to act or decide on one's own, without supervision

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonresponsibility
  noun
• preresponsibility
  noun
• self-responsibility
  noun
• superresponsibility
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• responsibilities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of responsibility

First recorded in 1780–90; respons(ible) + -ibility

Explanation

A responsibility is something you're required to do as an upstanding member of a community. If you're in a band, it's your responsibility to learn the songs and show up to practice on time. Responsibility comes from the Latin responsus, which means "to respond." There are actually a few different definitions of the noun. It can be another word for "trustworthiness," as in, "He demonstrated his responsibility by showing up to practice on time." And it can be used to describe the social force that motivates us to take on individual responsibilities, as in, "A sense of responsibility drove him to memorize all of the songs."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

responsibility responsibilities

She stepped up and earned more responsibility after that.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Erdogan said the pact emerged out of the "new circumstances" in the Middle East with regional players seeking to assume greater responsibility for their own security and stability.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Over the past year, some of the coalition’s most prominent figures have touted a responsibility to pro-create.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

“There were high expectations. We approached it with a great sense of responsibility and humility.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

“Think of the responsibility which you are asking me to take!” the czar told his foreign minister.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

While there aren’t as many internship opportunities, those that remain often come with higher-level responsibilities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

The Times, a longtime Mulholland booster, blamed “a faulty system which loads upon any man’s shoulders, no matter how broad, responsibilities that are too heavy for any man to bear.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

The trade-offs for many parents are to either continue to work and pay — sometimes thousands of dollars a month — for childcare, or leave the workforce to take on caregiving responsibilities.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

The tribunal found that requiring her to work a fully flexible seven-day rota placed her at a particular disadvantage because of her childcare responsibilities.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Because a week ago, back when there was no hope of a comeback, I didn't have any responsibilities.

From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements

Related Words

• authority
• burden
• duty
• guilt
• importance
• liability
• obligation
• power
• restraint
• trust