Expulsion

How to spell expulsion

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce expulsion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does expulsion mean?

1. nounThe act of officially forcing someone to leave a school, organisation, or country.
2. nounThe act of driving or pushing something out, such as air, gas, or fluid.

Expulsion in a sentence

• The student faced expulsion for repeated cheating in exams.

• The expulsion of stale air from the lungs is the second phase of breathing.

• The diplomat's expulsion from the country strained relations between the governments.

• The engine relies on the rapid expulsion of exhaust gases through the valve.

Where does expulsion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb expellere, which combined ex-, meaning 'out', with pellere, meaning 'to drive or push'. The related noun expulsio described the act of driving someone or something out, and the spelling reflects pellere's supine stem puls-, the same element hiding inside 'pulse', 'repulse', 'compel', and 'propel'. English took the word in the late 1300s through Old French, where the Latin form had passed largely intact. The sense narrowed from any forceful driving-out to the familiar modern meanings of barring a pupil from school or removing a member from an organisation. Remembering that the middle is the push-and-drive root puls (not 'pell') helps fix the s-before-ion spelling.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• puls (from Latin pellere, to drive or push)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)