DictionaryAI

fulfil

verb
fuul-FIL/fʊlˈfɪl/

Formsfulfils, fulfilling, fulfilled

US spellingfulfill

5 meanings of fulfil

Practice

  1. 1
    meet requirementsverbtransitive
    To do what an obligation, requirement or rule demands, carrying it out in full; also, to meet a need or perform a role or function.

    The company failed to fulfil the terms of its contract and was taken to court.

    Applicants who fulfil the criteria will be invited for an interview.

    UsageThe final l of fulfil stays single in fulfils, but doubles in fulfilled and fulfilling; you fulfil a duty, a contract or the criteria.

  2. 2
    make come trueverbtransitive
    To make something hoped for, promised or foretold actually happen, as when an ambition is achieved or a prophecy comes true.

    After years of evening classes, he finally fulfilled his ambition of qualifying as a solicitor.

    Their relegation in May seemed to fulfil every gloomy prediction the pundits had made at the start of the season.

    UsageUsually with words for hopes and forecasts: fulfil a dream, an ambition, a prophecy.

    Similarrealise, achieve, accomplish

  3. 3
    personal satisfactionverbtransitive
    To give someone a deep sense of emotional or creative satisfaction, or to develop one's own talents as fully as possible.

    She left the law firm to fulfil her potential as a painter.

    Volunteering at the animal shelter fulfils him in a way his office job never did.

    UsageMost often as fulfilling (fulfilling work) or feel fulfilled; also fulfil your potential, to develop your gifts fully.

  4. 4
    ship ordersverb
    In business, to carry out an order by preparing and supplying the goods requested.

    Orders placed before 2 p.m. are fulfilled from our Northampton warehouse and arrive the next day.

    We fulfil orders for more than two hundred independent brands, packing and posting everything the same day.

    UsageThe object is usually the order: a warehouse fulfils orders, and the work is fulfilment.

    Note

    Firms that do this work for other companies are known as fulfilment houses. The warehouses where orders are processed are called fulfilment centres.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    fill completelyverbarchaic
    To fill something completely, so that it holds as much as it possibly can.
    The silence which benumbs or strains the sense Fulfils with awe the soul's despair unweeping
    1870, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night
    My lady is positively fulfilled of grace.
    Note

    Here the word means exactly what its parts say: Old English fullfyllan, to fill full, built from full and fill. Older writers paired it with with or of, so a lady could be fulfilled of grace, and James Thomson's The City of Dreadful Night has a silence that fulfils the soul's despair with awe. Today fill or fill up does this work, and readers hear the later meanings first.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

Practice

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Origin

Middle English had the verb as fulfillen, which came from Old English fullfyllan, 'to fill full'. In English terms it is ful- plus fill.