What does commit mean?
"Commit" is one of English's most versatile verbs, built from the Latin committere, meaning to bring together, join, or entrust. At its core, committing means doing something definitive: performing an act — most often a crime or other wrongdoing, as in 'commit fraud' — or binding oneself irrevocably to a person, promise, or path, as in 'commit to a relationship' or 'commit to a deadline'. The word also covers entrusting things to others or to safekeeping, fixing information to memory ('commit to memory'), consigning someone to an institution, and, in modern computing, permanently recording changes to a database or code repository. Its connotations shift sharply with context: legally grave when paired with offences like perjury or murder, admirably resolute when paired with goals and relationships, and utterly neutral in technical settings. This range — spanning morality, memory, and machine state — makes commit both indispensable and subtly powerful in everyday language.
To carry out or perform an action, especially a crime or wrongdoing; to pledge or bind oneself irrevocably to a course of action; to entrust or consign something to someone's care or to a place or record.
"He committed himself to the project and saw it through to completion."
Transitive in most uses; often reflexive ('commit oneself') when expressing personal resolve.
In software development, a discrete saved change recorded permanently to a database or version-control repository.
"Her latest commit fixed the login bug."
A technical sense restricted mainly to programming and database contexts; pluralized as 'commits'.
Plural applies only to the computing noun sense referring to individual recorded changes; the verb itself has no plural form.
"The repository received over fifty commits this week."
The Latin root of "commit" literally means "to send together" — every time you commit to something, you're sending yourself along with it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of commit
"Commit" derives from the Latin committere, formed from com- (together) plus mittere (to send or put), originally meaning to bring together, connect, or entrust. It entered English via Old French in the late medieval period, initially carrying the senses of entrusting and perpetrating acts. From the same root mitto come words such as mission, emission, remit, transmit, and permit, all sharing the idea of sending forth or letting go. Over centuries, commit broadened from legal and religious wrongdoing into the modern senses of pledging oneself and, recently, saving work in software systems.
Related word forms
How commit is actually used
Commit is a formal-to-neutral verb common in legal, journalistic, and everyday registers. In its negative sense ('commit a crime') it carries strong moral or legal weight; in its positive sense ('commit to a plan') it conveys seriousness and resolve. The reflexive construction 'commit oneself' emphasizes personal accountability. In software development, 'commit' is a routine technical term, entirely free of criminal connotation.
Easily confused with commit
Commend means to praise or entrust someone or something approvingly, while commit means to perform an act (often a wrong one) or bind oneself to a course of action.
Comment means to make a remark or observation, whereas commit means to do something definitive or to pledge oneself to it.