Deposition

How to spell deposition

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce deposition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deposition mean?

1. nounSworn evidence given out of court and recorded in writing for later use.
2. nounThe process by which sediment, minerals, or other material is laid down in layers.
3. nounThe act of removing someone, especially a ruler or official, from a position of power.

Deposition in a sentence

• The lawyer scheduled the witness deposition for next Tuesday morning.

• The river slows at the bend, allowing the deposition of sand and silt.

• The rebellion led to the deposition of the king within a year.

• During the deposition the accountant answered questions under oath.

• The geologist explained how the deposition of limestone took millions of years.

• Historians debated the causes of the bishop's sudden deposition.

Where does deposition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin depositionem, the noun form of deponere, which literally meant 'to put down' or 'to lay aside', built from de- meaning 'down' and ponere meaning 'to place or put'. The same ponere root underlies a whole family of English words including 'position', 'deposit', 'compose' and 'opposite', which is a useful reminder that the middle of deposition is spelled posit, not 'pos'. English adopted it through Old French in the late 1300s, at first in the sense of putting someone down from high office, especially deposing a monarch. From the core idea of 'laying down' the meaning branched: in law it became the act of laying down sworn evidence in writing, while in science it came to describe matter being laid down in layers, as sediment settles or a gas turns straight to solid. The -tion ending arrived through that Latin noun-of-action form, which is why the word keeps its single s and ends in -ition.

How the word is built

• de- (down)
• posit (from ponere: to place/put)
• -ion (noun of action)