Dedication refers to devotion, loyalty, or commitment to a person or cause. It can also refer to a message at the beginning of a book, song, etc., that expresses affection or gratitude for someone, or to a ceremony to mark the official completion or opening of something, such as a building.

// It took a lot of hard work and dedication, but we managed to finish the project on time.

// Her novel includes a brief dedication to her family.

See the entry >

“Friday and Saturday nights at the Whistle Stop, the Robert McCoy Trio performed two sets of drowsy, free-form jazz, a musical complement to the watered-down drinks that the bartender Lonnie served with amiable dedication.” — Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto: A Novel, 2023

This one goes out to the word nerds we love. A simple word to occupy your time, but one dedicated to serving English users’ needs since the 14th century. Now that’s dedication! Dedication was first used for the solemn act of dedicating something, such as a calendar day or a church, to a deity or to a sacred use. The word hasn’t lost its religion in this respect; this sense is still very much in use today. But just as the verb dedicate (“to devote to the worship of a divine being”) has gained additional secular meanings over the centuries, so has dedication. By the 17th century it was being used for the act of devoting time and energy to a particular purpose (as when a band reveals its dedication to music by constantly rehearsing) as well as to a name or message prefixed to a literary, musical, or artistic production in tribute to a person, cause, or really any part of life’s rich pageant. Nowadays, dedication commonly indicates the quality of being loyal or devoted to a cause, ideal, or purpose.