Expedition

How to spell expedition

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce expedition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does expedition mean?

1. nounAn organised journey undertaken by a group for a specific purpose such as exploration, research, or adventure.

Expedition in a sentence

• The research team planned a six-week expedition to the Antarctic coast.

• Funding for the mountain expedition came from three universities.

Where does expedition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin expeditio, a noun meaning 'an enterprise against an enemy' or 'a military campaign', built on the verb expedire. That verb literally meant 'to free the feet', from ex- 'out' and pes, pedis 'foot', the idea being to disentangle the feet and so make ready or set in motion. From 'making ready' the sense broadened to a purposeful journey or campaign, and also to the quality of doing something promptly. English took the word in through French in the late 1400s, first in the sense of a warlike march and soon afterwards for any organised journey of exploration. The same Latin foot-root sits inside the opposite-sounding word 'impede', which means to entangle the feet rather than free them.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• ped (foot, from Latin pes/pedis)
• -ition (noun-forming suffix)