liability.

1. Legal responsibility for an obligation, loss or harm under the applicable rules.

2. A financial debt or obligation owed by a person or organization.

3. A person or thing that creates a disadvantage, burden or risk in the relevant activity.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• legal liability
• liability for damage

On the page

Liability for damage depended on the rule and the facts established in the case.

The agreement allocated legal liability without determining every practical risk.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Singular liability; plural liabilities. Also uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: responsibility analysis, evidence qualification, ethical distinction, institutional judgment. Disciplines: academic writing, ethics, legal-administrative reasoning. Commonness: moderately common.