Convince

How to spell convince

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce convince

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does convince mean?

1. verbTo cause someone to believe firmly that something is true or to agree to do something.

Convince in a sentence

• The salesman tried to convince her that the extended warranty was worth the cost.

• Nothing the manager said could convince the team to work over the weekend.

Where does convince come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb comes from the Latin convincere, which originally meant 'to overcome thoroughly' or 'to prove wrong' and was built from the intensifying prefix com- (here meaning 'thoroughly') plus the verb vincere, 'to conquer' or 'to overcome'. In its earliest Roman use it carried a courtroom flavour, meaning to defeat an opponent in argument or to demonstrate guilt beyond doubt. English borrowed it in the sixteenth century, at first keeping that sense of proving someone guilty or refuting them, before it softened into the modern idea of persuading someone that something is true. The same vincere root sits inside the familiar words 'victory', 'evict' and 'invincible', all of which share that core notion of overcoming. Remembering that conquering root helps with the spelling, since the word ends in the soft -ince of vincere rather than the harder -ict you see in its cousin 'convict'.

How the word is built

• con- (from com-, intensive: thoroughly)
• vinc (from Latin vincere: to conquer, overcome)
• -e