Conclusion

How to spell conclusion

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce conclusion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conclusion mean?

1. nounThe end or final part of something, such as an event, document, or process.
2. nounA decision or opinion reached after considering the evidence.

Conclusion in a sentence

• The report reached its conclusion with a list of recommendations.

• The detective drew the obvious conclusion from the fingerprints.

• At the conclusion of the meeting, everyone signed the agreement.

• The panel came to the conclusion that the project was viable.

Where does conclusion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin conclusio, meaning a closing or an ending, which was built on the verb concludere, 'to shut up' or 'to bring to a close'. That verb joined the prefix con-, meaning 'together', with claudere, the ordinary Latin verb for 'to close' or 'to shut', so the literal idea was of shutting everything together at the end. In Roman rhetoric conclusio already named the final summing-up of an argument, the part where a speaker drew the threads tight, which is very close to how we still use it. English took the word in the 1300s by way of Old French conclusion, keeping both the sense of an ending and the sense of a reasoned judgement. The same claudere root quietly survives in 'include', 'exclude' and 'close' itself, and noticing that 'clus' spelling can help you remember the single s before the -ion.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• clus (from claudere: to close, shut)
• -ion (noun of action)