fidelity

n., pl., -ties.

1. Faithfulness to obligations, duties, or observances.
2. Exact correspondence with fact or with a given quality, condition, or event; accuracy.
3. The degree to which an electronic system accurately reproduces the sound or image of its input signal.

[Middle English fidelite, from Old French, from Latin fidēlitās, from fidēlis, faithful, from fidēs, faith.]

SYNONYMS   fidelity, allegiance, fealty, loyalty. These nouns denote faithfulness. Fidelity implies the unfailing fulfillment of one's duties and obligations and strict adherence to vows or promises: fidelity to one's spouse. Allegiance is faithfulness considered as a duty: "I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance-=@ellipsis4=- The Union, Sir, is my country" (Henry Clay). Fealty, once applied to the obligation of a tenant or vassal to a feudal lord, now suggests faithfulness that one has pledged to uphold: swore fealty to the laws of that country. Loyalty implies a steadfast and devoted attachment that is not easily turned aside: loyalty to an oath; loyalty to one's family.

The degree to which the output of a system accurately reproduces the essential characteristics of its input signal. Thus, high fidelity in a sound system means that the reproduced sound is virtually indistinguishable from that picked up by the microphones in the recording or broadcasting studio. Similarly, a television system has a high fidelity when the picture seen on the screen of a receiver corresponds in essential respects to that picked up by the television camera. Fidelity is achieved by designing each part of a system to have minimum distortion, so that the waveform of the signal is unchanged as it travels through the system. See also Distortion (electronic circuits); Sound-reproducing systems.

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Accuracy with which an electronic recording device can reproduce the original sound or image. The primary value of all recording equipment lies in the exactness of its ability to reproduce the original sounds and/or images (in comparison, of course, to its price).

noun

1. Faithfulness or devotion to a person, a cause, obligations, or duties: allegiance, constancy, faithfulness, fealty, loyalty, steadfastness. See continue/stop/pause, obligation.
2. Correspondence with fact or truth: accuracy, correctness, exactitude, exactness, truth, veraciousness, veracity, veridicality, verity. See true/false.

n

Definition: conformity to standard
Antonyms: inconstancy, nonconformity, unsteadiness, vacillation, wavering

n

Definition: faithfulness in a relationship
Antonyms: disloyalty, faithlessness, infidelity, lying, treachery

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A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.

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Quotes:

"Another of our highly prized virtues is fidelity. We are immensely pleased with ourselves when we are faithful." - Ida R. Wylie

"What a fuss people make about fidelity! Why, even in love it is purely a question for physiology. It has nothing to do with our own will. Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot: that is all one can say." - Oscar Wilde

"People who love only once in their lives are shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect -- simply a confession of failures." - Oscar Wilde

"Constancy has nothing virtuous in itself, independently of the pleasure it confers, and partakes of the temporizing spirit of vice in proportion as it endures tamely moral defects of magnitude in the object of its indiscreet choice." - Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Fidelity is seven-tenths of business success." - James Parton

"Constancy is the complement of all other human virtues." - Giuseppe Mazzini

See more famous quotes about Fidelity

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - troskab, trofasthed

Nederlands (Dutch)
trouw, nauwkeurigheid, natuurgetrouwheid

Français (French)
n. - (Élec, Télécom) fidélité

Deutsch (German)
n. - Treue, Wiedergabetreue

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πιστότητα, ακρίβεια (απόδοσης κ.λπ.), αφοσίωση, (συζυγική) πίστη

Italiano (Italian)
fedeltà

Português (Portuguese)
n. - fidelidade (f)

Русский (Russian)
преданность, верность, точность, правильность

Español (Spanish)
n. - fidelidad, lealtad

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - trohet (mot), naturtrohet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
忠实, 忠诚, 诚实

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 忠實, 忠誠, 誠實

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 충실, 충성, 충성도

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 忠実, 忠誠, 貞節, 原物そっくり, 忠実度, 適合度, 厳守

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ولاء , إخلاص‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮נאמנות, דייקנות, דיוק‬

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