ALLEGIANCE | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
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English (US)

Meaning of allegiance in English

allegiance
noun [ C or U ]
  formal
us
/əˈliː.dʒəns/ uk
/əˈliː.dʒəns/
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loyalty and support for a ruler, country, group, or belief:
pledge allegiance to In many American schools, the students used to pledge allegiance to the flag at the beginning of the school day.
pledge allegiance They all pledged allegiance by kissing the king's hand.
swear allegiance to Soldiers have to swear allegiance to the Crown/the King.
As an Englishman who'd lived for a long time in France, he felt a certain conflict of allegiances when the two countries played soccer.
Synonym
fealty old use
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Loyal, faithful & dependable
See more results »
(Definition of allegiance from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

allegiance | Intermediate English

allegiance
noun [ C/U ]
us
/əˈli·dʒəns/
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support for a leader, country, group, or belief:
[ U ] For many here, allegiance to the local community comes first.
(Definition of allegiance from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of allegiance

allegiance
Would the subjects root for the sweep or switch allegiance to the favorite?
From Slate Magazine
Whether one inherits or marries crime, the culture of delinquency dictates that loyalty, secrecy, and allegiance are of the utmost importance.
From Huffington Post
Note how in his second outfit, he, once again, shows off his allegiance to this season's obsession with plaid by donning plaid pants.
From Huffington Post
Sometimes you even pledge allegiance to a warlord.
From The Atlantic
It is the largest unit, perhaps, to which people will willingly accord emotional allegiance.
From Foreign Policy
Refusing for a while to rule out running as an independent before pledging allegiance to the gop.
From ABC News
He said some who previously pledged allegiance to the group were defecting.
From CNN
I say partial because we're not going to be, for example, broadcasting his pledges of allegiance.
From ABC News
I am just glad that we were given a candid glimpse into where his priorities and allegiance really lie.
From NOLA.com
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of allegiance?
 

Translations of allegiance

in Chinese (Traditional)
（對統治者、國家、群體或信仰的）忠誠，忠貞, 擁戴，擁護…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
（对统治者、国家、群体或信仰的）忠诚，忠贞, 拥戴，拥护…
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in Spanish
lealtad…
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in Portuguese
lealdade…
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in more languages
in Turkish
in French
in Dutch
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Ukrainian
in Russian
bağlılık, sadakat, destek…
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allégeance…
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loyaliteit…
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věrnost…
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troskab, loyalitet, lydighed…
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kesetiaan…
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ความจงรักภักดี…
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lòng trung thành…
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wierność…
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lojalitet, trohet…
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pengikut…
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die Treue, die Anhänglichkeit…
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troskap, lydighet…
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вірність, відданість…
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верность…
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