Course

How to spell course

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce course

What does course mean?

1. nounThe route or direction taken by something as it moves or develops.
2. nounA series of lessons or lectures in a particular subject.
3. nounOne of the separate stages or dishes served in sequence during a meal.
4. verbTo move or flow swiftly and freely.

Course in a sentence

• noun

  The captain plotted a new course around the storm.

• noun

  She enrolled in an evening course on accounting.

• noun

  The main course was roast lamb with vegetables.

• verb

  Tears began to course down her cheeks.

• noun

  The river changed its course after the flood.

• noun

  The training course lasts six weeks.

Where does course come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin cursus, meaning 'a running' or 'a journey', which was formed from currere, the verb 'to run'. Roman writers used cursus for everything from the path of a chariot to the flow of a river and even the progress of events over time, and that wide range of meanings travelled with the word into English. It arrived through Old French as 'cours' in the medieval period, picking up its final 'e' along the way, and English then stretched it to cover a route, a programme of study, and the successive parts of a meal. The same currere root still runs through 'current', 'occur', 'recur' and 'cursor', all of which carry the idea of running or moving. The spelling trap is its identical-sounding cousin 'coarse', meaning rough; only this word, with -ourse, refers to a direction, a class, or a stage of a meal.

How the word is built

• cours- (from Latin cursus: a running, a journey)
• -e

Words that sound like course

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• coarse: Having a rough, gritty, or thick texture rather than a fine or smooth one.