Commitment vs. Contract — What's the Difference?

The state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.

A contract is a legally binding document between at least two parties that defines and governs the rights and duties of the parties to an agreement. A contract is legally enforceable because it meets the requirements and approval of the law.

An engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action

An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law.

The act of referring a legislative bill to committee.

The writing or document containing such an agreement.

Official consignment, as to a prison or mental health facility.

The branch of law dealing with formal agreements between parties.

A court order authorizing consignment to a prison.

Marriage as a formal agreement; betrothal.

A pledge or obligation, as to follow a certain course of action

The last and highest bid of a suit in one hand in bridge.

Something pledged, especially an engagement by contract involving financial obligation.

The number of tricks thus bid.

The state of being emotionally or intellectually devoted, as to a belief, a course of action, or another person

Contract bridge.

The act or an instance of committing, putting in charge, keeping, or trust, especially:

A paid assignment to murder someone

The act of sending a legislative bill to committee for review.

To enter into by contract; establish or settle by formal agreement

Official consignment sending a person to prison or a mental health institution.

To acquire or incur

Promise or agreement to do something in the future, especially:

To reduce in size by drawing together; shrink.

Act of assuming a financial obligation at a future date.

To pull together; wrinkle.

Being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons.

(Grammar) To shorten (a word or words) by omitting or combining some of the letters or sounds, as do not to don't.

The trait of sincerity and focused purpose.

To enter into or make an agreement

Perpetration as in a crime or mistake.

To become reduced in size by or as if by being drawn together

State of being pledged or engaged.

An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.

The act of being locked away, such as in an institution for the mentally ill or in jail.

(legal) An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.

The act of committing, or putting in charge, keeping, or trust; consignment; esp., the act of committing to prison.

(legal) The document containing such an agreement.

A warrant or order for the imprisonment of a person; - more frequently termed a mittimus.

(legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.

The act of referring or intrusting to a committee for consideration and report; as, the commitment of a petition or a bill.

(informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.

A doing, or perpetration, in a bad sense, as of a crime or blunder; commission.

(bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

The act of pledging or engaging; the act of exposing, endangering, or compromising; also, the state of being pledged or engaged.

(obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

The trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose;

(obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.

The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action;

(ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.

An engagement by contract involving financial obligation;

(grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

A message that makes a pledge

(transitive) To enter into a contract with. en

The official act of consigning a person to confinement (as in a prison or mental hospital)

(transitive) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

(intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.

(transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire.

(transitive) To gain or acquire (an illness).

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.

To betroth; to affiance.

To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.

To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.

To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

To betroth; to affiance.

To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.

To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.

Contracted; as, a contract verb.

Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights.

A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.

The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.

A binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law

(contract bridge) the highest bid becomes the contract setting the number of tricks that the bidder must make

A variety of bridge in which the bidder receives points toward game only for the number of tricks he bid

Enter into a contractual arrangement

Engage by written agreement;

Squeeze or press together;

Become smaller or draw together;

Be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness;

Make smaller;

Compress or concentrate;

Make or become more narrow or restricted;

Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;