Dictionary formfides, fidei(feminine)

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Translation

faith, trust, belief; loyalty, good faith; promise

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Grammar

Genderfeminine

Cases

Casesingular
Nominativethe subjectfides
Vocativecalling someone: O ...fides
Accusativethe direct object; after ad, in (into), perfidem
Genitiveoffidei
Dativeto, forfidei
Ablativeby, with, from; after a, ab, cum, de, e, ex, in (in), sinefide

Examples

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His faith was great.

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He gave his pledge to the king.

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He acted in good faith.

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Without faith nothing avails.

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The reward of faith is eternal life.

Fides, fidei is fifth declension feminine, one of the very few fifth-declension nouns you meet often, along with res and dies. Genitive and dative are both fidei, and it has no plural in practice.

The Roman sense runs in both directions at once: fides is the trust you place in somebody and the trustworthiness you show them. That two-way quality is why it covers credit in banking, protection in diplomacy and a guarantee in law. In fidem venire is to surrender into somebody's good faith; fidem dare is to give your word; bona fide, in the ablative, is the phrase English simply borrowed. The trap is the Christian corpus, which narrows fides hard to faith as belief, and reading that back into Cicero will mislead you badly. Family: fido, confido, fidelis, perfidia, foedus (rank 701). English fidelity, confidence, infidel, perfidy, affidavit; French foi, Spanish fe.

Where this fits

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fides: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is taught in chapter 3, lesson 4: fides, caelum, scio and 7 more words.