Ejection

How to spell ejection

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ejection

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ejection mean?

1. nounThe act of forcing, throwing, or driving someone or something out.

Ejection in a sentence

• The pilot survived thanks to a successful ejection from the burning jet.

• His second foul led to an immediate ejection from the match.

Where does ejection come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb eicere, meaning 'to throw out' or 'to cast forth', which combined ex- 'out' with iacere 'to throw'. The past participle stem eiectus gave rise to the Latin noun eiectio, describing the act of throwing or driving something out. English took the word in during the 1400s, at first in legal and medical contexts for forcibly removing a person or expelling a substance from the body. The same iacere root sits inside a whole family of familiar words such as 'project' (throw forward), 'reject' (throw back), and 'inject' (throw in), so recognising the ject element makes the spelling easier to fix. The modern senses, from a referee removing a player to an aircraft seat firing a pilot clear of danger, all keep that original idea of something being thrown out.

How the word is built

• e- (out, from ex-)
• ject (throw, from Latin iacere)
• -ion (noun of action)