# commit

/kəˈmɪt/ (US) · /kəmˈɪt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/commit
Updated: 2026-05-02

## Senses

### 1. to do something wrong

verb · CEFR B1

to do something illegal or morally wrong.

For teachers: to perpetrate a crime, error, or immoral act. Transitive, requiring a direct object.

- He was arrested after he tried to commit a robbery at the local bank.
- The investigation sought to determine whether the defendant intended to commit fraud or if the discrepancies were merely accounting errors.

### 2. to pledge or promise

verb · CEFR B2

to promise to give your time, money, or loyalty to a person or goal.

For teachers: to pledge or bind oneself to a particular course of action, policy, or person. Often used reflexively or with the preposition 'to'.

- You should not commit to the project if you are too busy to finish it.
- The government refused to commit to a specific timeline for the tax reforms until the economic forecast was finalized.

### 3. to send to a hospital or prison

verb · CEFR C1 · Formal

to officially send someone to a prison or a mental hospital.

For teachers: to consign someone officially to confinement in a prison or a psychiatric facility. Usually passive or formal in register.

- The judge decided to commit the man to a psychiatric ward for observation.
- Under the new legislation, the state can commit individuals to involuntary treatment only if they pose an immediate danger to themselves or others.

### 4. to save computer changes

verb · CEFR B2 · Technical

to save a set of changes to a database or a shared project so they become permanent.

For teachers: to execute a command that makes a set of data changes permanent in a repository or database. Ambitransitive use.

- Don't forget to commit your code changes before you leave for the day.
- The developer had to resolve several merge conflicts before the system would allow her to commit the new features to the master branch.

### 5. a saved change

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a specific set of changes saved to a computer project.

For teachers: an individual update or submission of source code to a version control repository.

- The latest commit fixed the bug that was causing the app to crash.
- Reviewing the project history revealed that a commit from last Tuesday had accidentally deleted the configuration files.

### 6. a student athlete's promise

noun · CEFR C2 · American English · Informal

a student who has promised to play for a specific college team.

For teachers: a high school athlete who has verbally or formally pledged to attend and compete for a specific university.

- The university is excited about their new five-star commit for the basketball season.
- As a top-tier commit, the quarterback faced immense pressure to perform during his first week of collegiate training camp.

## Examples

- I am ready to commit to this new job.
- The government promised to commit more resources to improving public transport over the next decade.
- While many are eager to start the initiative, few are willing to commit the necessary hours required to see such a demanding project through to its final completion.

## Synonyms

dedicate, devote, charge, give, pull, send, perpetrate, consecrate, institutionalize

## Pitfalls

- Not "I commit to help you" but "I commit to helping you" — When 'commit to' is followed by a verb, that verb must be in the -ing (gerund) form because 'to' is a preposition here.

## Usage notes

- Often takes the preposition 'to' followed by a noun or gerund. When referring to a crime, it is transitive and takes a direct object.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.