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Webster 1913 Edition


Fidelity

Fi-del′i-ty

,
Noun.
[L.
fidelitas
: cf. F.
fidélité
. See
Fealty
.]
Faithfulness; adherence to right; careful and exact observance of duty, or discharge of obligations.
Especially:
(a)
Adherence to a person or party to which one is bound; loyalty.
Whose courageous
fidelity
was proof to all danger.
Macaulay.
(b)
Adherence to the marriage contract.
(c)
Adherence to truth; veracity; honesty.
Syn. – Faithfulness; honesty; integrity; faith; loyalty; fealty.

Webster 1828 Edition


Fidelity

FIDEL'ITY

,
Noun.
[L. fidelitas, from fides, faith, fido, to trust. See Faith.]
1.
Faithfulness; careful and exact observance of duty, or performance of obligations. We expect fidelity in a public minister, in an agent or trustee, in a domestic servant, in a friend.
The best security for the fidelity of men, is to make interest coincide with duty.
2.
Firm adherence to a person or party with which one is united, or to which one is bound; loyalty; as the fidelity of subjects to their king or government; the fidelity of a tenant or liege to his lord.
3.
Observance of the marriage covenant; as the fidelity of a husband or wife.
4.
Honesty; veracity; adherence to truth; as the fidelity of a witness.

Definition 2024


fidelity

fidelity

English

Noun

fidelity (countable and uncountable, plural fidelities)

  1. Faithfulness to one's duties.
    the fidelity of the civil servants
  2. Loyalty to one's spouse or partner, including abstention from extramarital affairs (except in an open marriage).
  3. Accuracy, or exact correspondence to some given quality or fact.
  4. The degree to which a system accurately reproduces an input.
    • 2003, Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth International Conference on Very Large Databases, Berlin, Germany, 9-12 September, 2003, page 58:
      By placing them closer to the source, we can reduce the number of messages in the system and this in turn is likely to improve the fidelity of the system.

Quotations

  • 2004, High-Fidelity Medical Imaging Displays (Aldo Badano, Michael J. Flynn, Jerzy Kanicki, ISBN 0819451916)
  • 2008, David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox, Absolute Ultimate Guide for Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry (ISBN 1429212411), page S-305:
    The isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase has a proofreading function that ensures the fidelity of the aminoacylation reaction, but the histidyl-tRNA synthetase lacks such a proofreading function.

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External links

  • fidelity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • fidelity in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911