Induce

How to spell induce

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce induce

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does induce mean?

1. verbTo bring about a result, or to persuade someone to do something.

Induce in a sentence

• The manager tried to induce his best engineer to stay with a higher salary.

• Certain medications can induce drowsiness within an hour.

Where does induce come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb comes from the Latin inducere, which combined the prefix in-, meaning 'in' or 'into', with the verb ducere, meaning 'to lead'. The literal idea was 'to lead in' or 'to bring on', and from that physical sense of leading something into place grew the figurative senses of persuading a person to act or causing a result to come about. English adopted it through Old French and directly from Latin during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The same ducere root quietly powers a large family of English words, including conduct, reduce, produce and education, all of which carry a buried notion of 'leading'. Remembering that the heart of the word is duc, 'to lead', helps fix the spelling of the middle of induce.

How the word is built

• in- (into)
• duc (from Latin ducere: to lead)
• -e