Concession

How to spell concession

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce concession

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does concession mean?

1. nounSomething admitted or granted, especially a point conceded in an argument or negotiation.
2. nounA right granted by an authority or owner to use land or to sell goods in a particular place.
3. nounA reduction in price or fee granted to a particular group, such as students or pensioners.

Concession in a sentence

• The union won an important concession on overtime pay.

• The company holds the mining concession for the northern valley.

• Students can buy a ticket at the lower concession rate.

• As a concession to her critics, the minister agreed to a public review.

• A family runs the food concession at the local stadium.

• The museum offers a concession for visitors over sixty.

Where does concession come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin concessio, meaning 'a granting' or 'a yielding', which was formed from the verb concedere, 'to give way' or 'to grant'. That verb combined the prefix con-, here acting as an intensifier meaning 'fully', with cedere, which literally meant 'to go', 'to withdraw', or 'to yield'. English took the word in through Old French concession during the late 1300s and 1400s, first in the sense of granting or admitting something. The same cedere root quietly sits inside a whole family of English words, including 'recede', 'proceed', 'cede', and 'access', and noticing that shared cess spelling is a good way to remember the double-s in the middle. The trickiest part for writers is that single c before the double s: there is one c near the front and a doubled s in the heart of the word.

How the word is built

• con- (together, fully)
• cess (from cedere: to yield, give way, go)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)