Considerate

How to spell considerate

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce considerate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does considerate mean?

1. adjectiveCareful to take account of other people's feelings, comfort, or needs.

Considerate in a sentence

• It was considerate of the neighbours to keep the music low after midnight.

• A considerate host checks whether any guests have food allergies.

Where does considerate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin considerare, which meant 'to examine carefully' or 'to look at closely'. Many scholars trace it to sidus (genitive sideris), the Latin word for 'star' or 'constellation', so the literal early flavour was something like 'to observe the stars', as an augur or astronomer might before forming a judgement. From that careful weighing of options the sense broadened to mean thoughtful reflection, and English borrowed the word through French in the late 1400s. By the 1500s 'considerate' had shifted from 'deliberate and prudent' toward its modern social meaning: attentive to the feelings and needs of other people. The same sider root still glimmers in 'sidereal', an adjective astronomers use for things measured against the stars, and remembering that buried 'sider' helps fix the middle of the spelling.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive, thoroughly)
• sider (from Latin sidus/sider-: star)
• -ate (adjective suffix)