Advertise

How to spell advertise

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce advertise

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does advertise mean?

1. verbTo promote a product, service, or event publicly in order to attract customers or attention.

Advertise in a sentence

• The bakery decided to advertise its new menu on local radio.

• Small firms often advertise their vacancies on free job boards.

Where does advertise come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin advertere, meaning 'to turn toward', formed from ad- 'to' and vertere 'to turn'. By way of Old French advertir and avertir, meaning 'to notice' or 'to warn', it entered English in the fifteenth century with the early sense of turning one's attention to something or making a person aware of it. From the idea of drawing attention, the word gradually shifted to mean publicly announcing goods or services so that people would notice them, a sense that took firm hold once printed notices became common. The same vertere root turns up in a large family of English words such as convert, divert, and reverse, all of which involve some kind of turning. Knowing that the middle of the word is the root 'vert' (turn) is a useful guard against dropping that hidden syllable when spelling it. Unusually, this spelling keeps the -ise ending in American English too, so it is not one of the words that splits into -ise and -ize.

How the word is built

• ad- (to, toward)
• vert (turn)
• -ise (verb suffix)