Determination

How to spell determination

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce determination

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does determination mean?

1. nounFirmness of purpose; the quality of staying fixed on a goal despite difficulty.
2. nounA formal decision or finding reached after consideration, as by a court or official body.

Determination in a sentence

• Her quiet determination carried the project through three rounds of setbacks.

• The tribunal issued its determination on the disputed claim in writing.

• Finishing the marathon took months of training and sheer determination.

• The council awaited the surveyor's determination of the property boundary.

Where does determination come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb determinare, which meant 'to set bounds to' or 'to fix the limits of', built from the prefix de- (used here as an intensifier meaning 'completely') and terminus, the Latin word for a boundary stone or limit. The same terminus root underlies the everyday words 'terminate', 'terminal' and 'terminus', all of which still carry the idea of an end or fixed edge. English took the noun in through Old French determinacion during the 1300s, when it first meant a formal settling or decision of a question, especially in law and logic. From the sense of fixing something firmly came the modern meaning of firmness of purpose, the resolve to push toward an end. The spelling keeps the full Latin shape, so the unstressed middle vowels (the e and the i in 'deter-mi-nation') are the parts writers most often blur.

How the word is built

• de- (completely, down)
• termin (from terminus: boundary, limit)
• -ation (noun of action)