loyal
Americanadjective
-
faithful to one's sovereign, government, or state.
a loyal subject.
- Synonyms:
- patriotic
- Antonyms:
- treacherous, faithless, disloyal, treasonous, traitorous
-
faithful to one's oath, commitments, or obligations.
to be loyal to a vow.
-
faithful to any leader, party, or cause, or to any person or thing conceived as deserving fidelity.
a loyal friend.
-
characterized by or showing faithfulness to commitments, vows, allegiance, obligations, etc..
loyal conduct.
adjective
-
having or showing continuing allegiance
-
faithful to one's country, government, etc
-
of or expressing loyalty
Related Words
See faithful.
Other Word Forms
- loyally adverb
- loyalness noun
- nonloyal adjective
- nonloyally adverb
- overloyal adjective
- overloyally adverb
- quasi-loyal adjective
- quasi-loyally adverb
- superloyal adjective
- superloyally adverb
- unloyal adjective
- unloyally adverb
Etymology
Origin of loyal
First recorded in 1525–35; from Middle French, Old French loial, lei(a)l, from Latin lēgālis legal
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.
Foldable phones remain a fringe, albeit novel, product with a loyal following.
Sadie, ever loyal to my mom, had slipped it into my bag, neatly wrapped in foil, saying it was for the three of us.
From Literature
His followers, known as the Kwankwasiyya movement, are recognised for their trademark red caps and have remained loyal to Kwankwaso through several party changes over the years.
From BBC
All that survived intact of the family’s former treasures were the netsuke, which were smuggled out of the family’s mansion by a loyal maid and returned to the family after the war.
The underpinnings of the department’s proposed rule is that the fiduciary process must be undertaken by loyal and conflict-free plan fiduciaries.
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.
