Aggression

How to spell aggression

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce aggression

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aggression mean?

1. nounHostile or violent behaviour or attitudes toward another, often involving a readiness to attack.

Aggression in a sentence

• The manager warned that any aggression toward colleagues would lead to dismissal.

• The documentary examined how aggression between rival nations escalated into war.

Where does aggression come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin aggressio, meaning 'an attack' or 'an assault', which was formed from the verb aggredi, 'to approach' or 'to attack'. That verb breaks down into ad-, meaning 'toward', and gradi, meaning 'to step' or 'to walk', so the literal sense was simply 'a stepping toward someone', which slid easily into the hostile idea of advancing on a foe. English took the word in during the 1600s, originally describing an unprovoked first attack rather than a general mood. The same gradi root, built on gradus 'a step', also gives us progress, congress, and gradual, all of which keep the doubled idea of stepping. A useful spelling reminder is that the doubled g comes straight from the assimilation of ad- into ag- before the g of gradi, while the ending is the regular -sion you hear as 'shun'.

How the word is built

• ag- (toward, assimilated form of ad-)
• gress (step, advance)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)