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

Tehran has not claimed responsibility for the hostilities.

From MarketWatch • Jul. 8, 2026

The case occurred two years before legal changes saw diminished responsibility introduced as a defence.

From BBC • Jul. 8, 2026

All of this raises important and troubling questions for the country: Can a democracy that was built on a sense of responsibility for the Holocaust survive without it?

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 8, 2026

"Yesterday was a great success," Rutte said on Wednesday, saying allies were "delivering" by moving to take more responsibility for the defence of their continent in the face of Russia.

From Barron's • Jul. 8, 2026

“To be free of all this responsibility? To be released from your grandmother’s legacy? To not have to worry about a culture that’s not yours? To just be ordinary?”

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

Related Words

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