Exemption

How to spell exemption

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exemption

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exemption mean?

1. nounA formal release from an obligation, payment, or rule that would otherwise apply.

Exemption in a sentence

• The charity applied for an exemption from local business rates.

• Workers in essential roles were granted an exemption from the travel ban.

Where does exemption come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin exemptionem, the noun form of eximere, which literally meant 'to take out' or 'to remove'. That verb was built from the prefix ex- 'out' and the verb emere 'to take' or 'to buy', the same root that quietly survives in words like 'redeem' and 'pre-empt'. In Roman use the idea of taking something out broadened into the sense of setting a thing apart or freeing it from a general rule. English picked the word up from Old French in the late Middle Ages, around the 1400s, with the meaning of release from a duty, payment, or obligation. The tricky 'mpt' cluster in the spelling preserves that buried Latin emere root, which is why the silent-feeling letters before the -ion all need to be written out.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• empt (from Latin emere: to take, buy)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)