commit
- 01 B1 Intermediate
v.to do something illegal or morally wrong.
v.to perpetrate a crime, error, or immoral act. Transitive, requiring a direct object.
Simple“He was arrested after he tried to commit a robbery at the local bank.”
In context“The investigation sought to determine whether the defendant intended to commit fraud or if the discrepancies were merely accounting errors.”
Synonymsperpetrateexecute - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to promise to give your time, money, or loyalty to a person or goal.
v.to pledge or bind oneself to a particular course of action, policy, or person. Often used reflexively or with the preposition 'to'.
Simple“You should not commit to the project if you are too busy to finish it.”
In context“The government refused to commit to a specific timeline for the tax reforms until the economic forecast was finalized.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
v.to officially send someone to a prison or a mental hospital.
v.to consign someone officially to confinement in a prison or a psychiatric facility. Usually passive or formal in register.
Simple“The judge decided to commit the man to a psychiatric ward for observation.”
In context“Under the new legislation, the state can commit individuals to involuntary treatment only if they pose an immediate danger to themselves or others.”
- 04 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to save a set of changes to a database or a shared project so they become permanent.
v.to execute a command that makes a set of data changes permanent in a repository or database. Ambitransitive use.
Simple“Don't forget to commit your code changes before you leave for the day.”
In context“The developer had to resolve several merge conflicts before the system would allow her to commit the new features to the master branch.”
- 05 C1 Advanced
n.a specific set of changes saved to a computer project.
n.an individual update or submission of source code to a version control repository.
Simple“The latest commit fixed the bug that was causing the app to crash.”
In context“Reviewing the project history revealed that a commit from last Tuesday had accidentally deleted the configuration files.”
Synonyms - 06 C2 Proficiency
n.a student who has promised to play for a specific college team.
n.a high school athlete who has verbally or formally pledged to attend and compete for a specific university.
Simple“The university is excited about their new five-star commit for the basketball season.”
In context“As a top-tier commit, the quarterback faced immense pressure to perform during his first week of collegiate training camp.”
Synonymsrecruitenrollee
In the news
“Hui Ka Yan, also known as Xu Jiayin, was detained in China in September 2023 on suspicion of committing crimes.”
“Over the weekend, however, peace talks in Pakistan faltered, with Vice President JD Vance saying Iran would not commit to forgoing a nuclear weapon.”
“Starlink has finally committed to offering gigabit speeds to rural Oregon by mid-2027, ending a two-year standoff with the Public Utility Commission.”
“The startup committed $50 million in equity to a new fund backing climate researchers in the Global South.”
Often takes the preposition 'to' followed by a noun or gerund. When referring to a crime, it is transitive and takes a direct object.
'Commit' carries weight in English — stronger than 'decide'. Saying 'I'm committed' implies you've tied yourself to the outcome, not just chosen it.
When 'commit to' is followed by a verb, that verb must be in the -ing (gerund) form because 'to' is a preposition here.
Usage commit a crime · commit suicide · commit to memory
The word commit emerges from Latin committere, a verb meaning "to bring together, entrust," formed from com- ("with") and mittere ("to send"). Its journey to English passed through Old French commettre and Middle English committen, with the Latin root preserved in the consonants and the meaning carried forward as a compound of action and intention.
It reached English via the intermediary stages of commettre and committen, a transmission noted in linguistic records as a straightforward borrowing. The verb’s survival in English required no dramatic recontextualisation; its core function—to signify the act of entrusting, assigning, or carrying out a task—remained intact through the transition.
The word commit now stands as a direct descendant of committere, its Latin ancestry buried beneath centuries of usage but still legible in its structure. The path from Rome to English involved no scandal, no duel, no eccentric gambler. It was, as the linguists might say, a quiet and unremarkable affair.
Latin committere, formed from com- "together" and mittere "to send".
Twentieth-century computing adopted the verb for the act of sending a digital change into permanent storage; the earlier sense "to entrust" now survives inside the machine rather than the monastery.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.