These words are alike in meaning morally or intellectually disposed to respect authority or custom and to follow the dictates thereof. Obedient stresses an acknowledgement of the authority vested in some person, organization, etc. the very common usage of obedient in reference to children suggests the nature of the compliance implicit in the word: a soldier who refused to be blindly obedient to the commands of an ignorant superior whose only saving grace was a kind of fatherly good will. Alone among the words being considered here, obedient has an extended application to physical objects that respond to or act in accordance with some superior force or natural law: a ship obedient to the wheel. Dutiful , even more than obedient , suggests the influence of outside conditions, such as ethical demands or those of behavioural customs. Dutiful persons have a strong sense of respect or obligation: a dutiful child; a dutiful parent.

While obedient and dutiful connote a manner of acting that is dependent upon external circumstances, good refers to behaviour that is the result of inner demands. Thus, a good child is docile by nature, and he is easy to manage or teach because of his own inclination. A good worker, in the context of this comparison, is one who follows instructions because of a personal desire to please and do what he is supposed to do.

Someone who is well-behaved may be that way because of training or because of his own make-up. But the suggestion of outside influence is strong; well-behaved is used to characterize that kind of conduct which has standards established by the society in which a person lives: The new teacher congratulated himself on having a class more than usually well-behaved .