Attend

How to spell attend

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce attend

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attend mean?

1. verbTo be present at an event, meeting, or place.
2. verbTo deal with or take care of a task, matter, or person, usually followed by 'to'.

Attend in a sentence

• All staff must attend the safety briefing on Monday morning.

• A nurse will attend to your wound as soon as the doctor arrives.

• She could not attend the conference because of a clash in her diary.

• The manager left early to attend to an urgent family matter.

Where does attend come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin attendere, formed from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', joined to the verb tendere, meaning 'to stretch'. The literal sense was therefore to stretch oneself toward something, which captured the idea of directing one's mind or attention to it. English took the word in during the 1300s through the Old French atendre, which carried meanings such as 'to wait for' and 'to give heed to'. From paying attention the sense broadened to being present and waiting upon someone, and finally to simply being present at an event. The same tendere root runs through a large family of relatives including 'tension', 'extend', and 'attention', which shares attend's very core idea of stretching the mind toward a focus.

How the word is built

• at- (a form of ad-: to, toward)
• tend (from tendere: to stretch)