Communications

How to spell communications

14 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce communications

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does communications mean?

1. nounThe means or systems by which information is sent, received, or exchanged, often treated as a field or department.

Communications in a sentence

• The company hired a new head of communications to manage its public messaging.

• A storm knocked out power and communications across the whole region.

Where does communications come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin communicare, meaning 'to share' or 'to make common', which itself was built on communis, 'common' or 'shared by all'. The communis root joined com-, meaning 'together', with an element related to munus, a word for a duty, service, or gift that people owed to one another, so the deep idea is of something held jointly. Latin formed the noun communicatio for the act of sharing or imparting, and English borrowed it through Old French in the late 1300s, at first for the giving and receiving of information. By the 1600s and 1700s it had widened to cover roads, links, and the means of conveying messages or moving between places. The familiar plural 'communications' grew alongside the rise of postal, telegraph, and later electronic systems, naming the whole field and its infrastructure. The double m sits right at the join of com- and the root, which is exactly where careful writers should slow down.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• mun (shared, from munus: duty, gift)
• -ic (adjective)
• -ation (act/process)
• -s (plural)