obligate
adjUK /ˈɒb.lɪ.ɡɪt/ · CA, US /ˈɑ.blɪ.ɡɪt/
Etymology Partly inherited from Middle English obligat(e) (“bound (by any obligation), obliged”), partly directly borrowed from Latin obligātus, see Etymology 1, -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more.
1
Biology, Natural sciences Requiring a (specified) way of life, habitat, etc.
- [A]nalysis of the chemical composition of their bones reveals that they were obligate carnivores.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 171:
2
Indispensable; essential; necessary; obligatory; mandatory; unavoidably invoked.
- In addition to being the obligate food source for monarch caterpillars, milkweeds also provide abundant nectar for the adult butterflies.
- In some languages such signaling is optional, whereas in others it is obligate.
3 more examples
- Aquatic sites constitute obligate habitat for some species, and are critical breeding habitat for species with complex life cycles involving aquatic egg or larval development.2009, C. Kenneth Dodd Jr., Amphibian Ecology and Conservation: A Handbook of Techniques, page 304:
- Unlike for phagotrophic flagellates, bacteria serve as a facultative rather than an obligate food source for crustacean zooplankton.2012, Ulrich Sommer, Plankton Ecology: Succession in Plankton Communities, page 351:
- Light is the obligate energy source for the phototrophic microbes constructing these benthic mats2013, K.C. Marshall, editor, Advances in Microbial Ecology, volume 11, page 472:
3
Obsolete Bound by oath, law or duty.
- The Law sayith, Mack a mendis for thy synne. The Father of Heaven is wraith wyth thee. Quhair is thy rychteousnes, goodnes, and satisfactioun ? Thou art bound and obligat unto me, [to] the devill, and [to] hell.1559-1566, John Knox, The History of the Reformation in Scotland, book 1, page 25:
- Derived terms
- nonobligate, obligate carrier, obligately