Animation

How to spell animation

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce animation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does animation mean?

1. nounThe technique of making films or sequences from drawings, models, or computer images so they appear to move.
2. nounThe quality of being lively, energetic, and full of spirit.

Animation in a sentence

• The studio spent three years on the animation for the feature film.

• He described the holiday with great animation, waving his hands as he spoke.

• Computer animation has replaced much of the hand-drawn work in film studios.

• The debate lost its animation once the main speaker left the room.

Where does animation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun anima, which literally meant 'breath', and by extension 'the life force' or 'soul', since the ancients linked breathing with being alive. From anima came the verb animare, 'to give life to' or 'to fill with breath', and from that the noun animatio, meaning 'a quickening' or 'the act of giving life'. English took the word through Old French during the 1500s, at first to describe the quality of being lively and full of spirit. The modern meaning of bringing drawings or models to apparent life on screen grew naturally from this older sense and became common in the early twentieth century with film. The same anima root still powers a whole family of relatives, including 'animal', 'animate', and even 'unanimous' (literally 'of one mind'), and remembering that shared 'anim' core helps fix the spelling.

How the word is built

• anim- (from Latin anima: breath, life, soul)
• -ate (to make)
• -ion (noun of action/result)