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''fealty'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606185347-00-⌔

fealty - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

fealty (countable and uncountable, plural fealties)

  • Fidelity to one’s lord or master; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.
    • ✤ Synonyms: fidelity, allegiance, faithfulness
    • ✤ I doubt whether the most devoted fidelity would bear strict examination as to the short reposes even the most entire fealty permits itself.1
    • ✤ Ordo Malleus Inquisitor: In fealty to the God-Emperor, our Undying Lord, and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris.2
    • ✤ And yet the war has come, full of double-crossing, internecine accusations of lying and incompetence, and a bitter cleavage into factions over the question of how much fealty should be shown to President Trump — and the extent to which Republicans should amplify his false argument that the election in this fast-changing Southern state was stolen from him.3
    • ✤ In one recent video, he said the problem posed by a Russian military led by people who demand nothing but blind fealty would need to be dealt with — “or one day the Russian people will solve it themselves.”4
    • ✤ I think the central characteristic Trump seems to be looking for in all of the appointees we’ve seen so far is fealty to him.5
    • ✤ But [Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington] says there’s a growing sense that what Mr. Trump really wants is unquestioned fealty – and that, he says, is not going to happen.6

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English feaute, feute, from Anglo-Norman fëauté, fëuté, from Latin fidēlitās (“faithfulness”; “homage, fealty” in Medieval Latin), from fidēlis (“faithful”) +‎ -tās (noun suffix); the modern form (for expected ﹡feauty/ˈfjuːti/) is due to learned influence. Equivalent to obsolete feal +‎ -ty. Doublet of fidelity.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfiː.əlti/, /ˈfiːlti/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -iəlti

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 111: ↩

  2. 2011, Relic Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution, scene: Exterminatus declared on Typhon Primaris: ↩

  3. 2020 November 18, Richard Fausset, Jonathan Martin, “In Georgia, a Republican Feud With Trump at the Center”, in The New York Times ‎, →ISSN: ↩

  4. 2023 May 16, Paul Sonne, Anton Troianovski, “As Ukrainian Attack Looms, Putin Faces Setbacks and Disunity in Russian Forces”, in The New York Times ‎, →ISSN: ↩

  5. 2025 January 27, Cameron Joseph, quoting John Bolton, “John Bolton says he’s faced Trump’s retribution. He worries what Kash Patel might do.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC: ↩

  6. 2026 April 5, Howard LaFranchi, “Trump’s war in Iran puts new strain on alliances. Why this time it’s different.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC: ↩

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