From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishallegianceal‧le‧giance /əˈliːdʒəns/ ●○○ noun [countable, uncountable] FAITHFULloyalty to a leader, country, belief etcallegiance to You owe allegiance (=have a duty to give allegiance) to your king.swear/pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. an oath of allegianceswitch/transfer allegiance (=start to support a different person, group etc) The people here have strong political allegiances.
Examples from the Corpus
allegiance• It was difficult on everybody and there was an allegiance to Jef, but Steve had his own compelling aura.• These might include songs, chants, or activities that express allegiance to political leaders or symbols.• Female cuckoos bear more allegiance to a particular host, be it redstart or warbler, than do their males.• Offices may have been relocated, but not allegiances.• New ruling administrators owed allegiance to the state.• A number of communes were independent of any seigneur, and owed allegiance to the Crown alone.• Opposition leaders have proclaimed their allegiance to the new government.• Their allegiance is still to the Queen.political allegiances• These contrasting values and political allegiances demonstrate the lack of any necessary correspondence between elite methodology, state theory and political values.• The quotations above illustrate this left-wing frankness, and show how far political allegiances in some cases determine selection policy.• The Independent has remained independent from political allegiances though it too favoured a middle-of-the-road political outcome in the 1987 election.• The political allegiances of the Highland clans present a complex picture.Origin allegiance (1300-1400) Old French ligeance, from lige “person you owe loyal service to”, from Late Latin laetus “serf” 