Destination

How to spell destination

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce destination

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does destination mean?

1. nounThe place to which someone or something is going or being sent.

Destination in a sentence

• The train reached its final destination twenty minutes late.

• The coastal town has become a popular holiday destination for families.

Where does destination come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin destinare, which meant 'to make firm, to establish, or to fix in place', built on the prefix de- (here intensifying the sense of finality) and a root tied to stare, meaning 'to stand'. The related noun destinatio carried the idea of a fixed purpose or appointed end. English took the word through Old French destination in the late 1300s, when it first referred to the act of appointing or settling something, much like the older word 'destiny', which shares the very same root. Only in the early 1800s did it settle into its modern travel sense, the place to which a person or thing is heading. Knowing that the middle ties back to 'stand' and 'stare' can help fix the single -s- and the -ation ending in mind.

How the word is built

• de- (down, completely)
• stin (from stare/destinare: to make firm, fix in place)
• -ation (noun of action)