Aspect

How to spell aspect

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce aspect

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aspect mean?

1. nounA particular part or feature of something, considered separately from the whole.
2. nounThe direction in which a building, room, or slope faces.

Aspect in a sentence

• The report examined every aspect of the proposed merger.

• The kitchen has a southern aspect, so it gets sun all afternoon.

• Time management is the hardest aspect of working from home.

• Buyers favoured the flat for its bright eastern aspect.

Where does aspect come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin aspectus, meaning 'a looking at' or 'appearance', which was formed from the verb aspicere, 'to look toward'. That verb combined the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', with the root verb specere, 'to look' or 'to see'. The same specere root sits inside a whole family of familiar English words, including 'spectacle', 'inspect', 'respect', and 'spectator', all of which involve looking in some way. English adopted aspect in the late fourteenth century, at first in the technical language of astrology and astronomy, where it described the relative position or 'look' of the planets toward one another. From that sense of how something appears when looked at, the meaning broadened to cover any particular feature or side of a thing, as well as the direction a building or slope faces. The spelling stays close to the Latin, with the visible spect chunk acting as a steady anchor.

How the word is built

• a- (from Latin ad-, 'to, toward')
• spect (from specere, 'to look')
• -us forming the noun aspectus