Convenience

How to spell convenience

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce convenience

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does convenience mean?

1. nounThe quality of being useful, easy, or suitable, or something that provides comfort and saves effort.

Convenience in a sentence

• The flat was chosen for its convenience rather than its size.

• Online banking offers the convenience of paying bills at any hour.

Where does convenience come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb convenire, which literally meant 'to come together', built from the prefix con- 'together' and the verb venire 'to come'. From the idea of things coming together neatly grew the related sense of being fitting, agreeable, or suitable, and the noun convenientia came to mean 'agreement' or 'suitability'. English borrowed the word through Old French in the late 1300s, at first carrying the sense of agreement or harmony before settling on its modern meaning of personal comfort and ease. The same venire root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'venue', 'intervene', 'venture', and the closely related 'convenient'. The spelling trap lives in that unstressed middle: the 'ven' is clear, but the ending '-ience' is easy to misjudge, since the schwa sound gives no clue about the 'ie' order.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• ven (come, from Latin venire)
• -ience (noun-forming suffix)