obligé
French, adjective
obligé is spelled O-B-L-I-G-É (6 letters) and appears 47 times per million words in written French, the 1,772nd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Obligé is a French adjective meaning “obligated (required)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of obliger. Without its accent, oblige is a different word: “first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Qui est d’usage, dont on ne peut guère se dispenser ; obligatoire”.
What does obligé mean in English?
adjective
- 1
obligated (required)
verb
- 1
past participle of obliger
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qui est d’usage, dont on ne peut guère se dispenser ; obligatoire. 2. Redevable. 3. Contraint. 4. Qualifie la partie qu'on ne pourrait retrancher sans gâter l'harmonie et surtout sans détruire le chant.
noun: 1. Se dit à quelqu’un dont on a reçu un service. 2. Celui à qui on a octroyé un avantage, une faveur, et qui en est donc redevable. 3. Débiteur, celui qui apporte sa caution.
verb: 1. En apposition ou phrase complète, employé absolument précédé d'un sujet non déterminé, exprime une situation rendue nécessaire ou inévitable par la contrainte indiquée par le sujet.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of obligé
- obligée feminine
- obligés masculine plural
- obligées feminine plural
- j’oblige indicative present
- il/elle/on oblige indicative present
- que j’oblige subjunctive present
- qu’il/elle/on oblige subjunctive present
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to obligé
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is obligé in French?
obligé appears 47 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).