Intention

How to spell intention

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce intention

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intention mean?

1. nounA plan or aim that someone means to carry out.

Intention in a sentence

• Her intention was to repay the loan within a year.

• He announced his intention to retire at the end of the season.

Where does intention come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb intendere, which literally meant 'to stretch toward' or 'to direct', built from the prefix in- ('toward') and tendere ('to stretch'). The Romans used the related noun intentio for a stretching out, an effort, or a directing of the mind toward something, and from that mental sense grew the idea of a deliberate aim or purpose. English took the word in the 1300s, partly through Old French entencion, but spelling later drifted back toward the Latin form with its -tion ending. The same tendere root still stretches through many familiar relatives such as 'tense', 'extend', 'tension', and 'attention', all of which share the idea of stretching or straining. Remembering that the -tion ending here comes straight from Latin intentio helps fix the spelling, since the word is built from 'intent' plus a clean -ion.

How the word is built

• in- (toward)
• tent (from Latin tendere, to stretch)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)