Dismiss

How to spell dismiss

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dismiss

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dismiss mean?

1. verbTo order or allow someone to leave, to remove from a job, or to reject something as unworthy of consideration.

Dismiss in a sentence

• The manager decided to dismiss the complaint without further review.

• The company chose to dismiss three staff members after the audit.

Where does dismiss come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb mittere, meaning 'to send', combined with the prefix dis-, which carries the sense of 'away' or 'apart'. The Medieval Latin form dismittere or dimittere meant literally 'to send away' or 'to let go', and it passed into English in the late 1400s, partly shaped by the related Latin past participle dimissus. The Latin mittere is one of the great word-building roots of English: it also gives us 'mission', 'permit', 'transmit', 'submit', and 'commit', all of which share that core idea of sending. Over time dismiss broadened from physically sending someone away to the modern senses of ending a meeting, removing an employee, or mentally rejecting an idea as unworthy. The doubled s at the end is the chief spelling trap, since the prefix dis- already ends in s and the root contributes its own, so writers must remember both.

How the word is built

• dis- (away, apart)
• miss (from Latin mittere: to send)