Imposition

How to spell imposition

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce imposition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imposition mean?

1. nounAn unfair or unwelcome demand placed on someone, especially one that causes them inconvenience or trouble.
2. nounThe act of introducing or enforcing something such as a tax, rule, or penalty.

Imposition in a sentence

• Staying an extra week felt like an imposition on his sister and her family.

• The sudden imposition of new parking charges angered local residents.

• She apologised for the imposition of asking him to drive across town so late.

• Traders protested against the imposition of higher import duties.

Where does imposition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb imponere, meaning 'to place upon' or 'to lay on', which was formed from in- 'on, upon' and ponere 'to put or place'. The same ponere root sits behind a large family of English words including 'position', 'compose', 'deposit', and 'impose', all of which carry that core idea of putting something somewhere. The related noun impositio described the literal laying on of something, such as hands, and from there the sense broadened to cover the placing of a tax, duty, or obligation onto people. English took the word in through Old French during the late 1300s, keeping the figurative idea that something has been laid on you, whether a charge, a rule, or an unwelcome burden. The spelling preserves the buried ponere root in the -pos- middle, which is the part most worth fixing in memory, and the ending settles into -ition rather than the verb form -ose seen in 'impose'.

How the word is built

• im- (on, upon)
• pos (place, put, from Latin ponere)
• -ition (noun suffix)