Intentional

How to spell intentional

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce intentional

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intentional mean?

1. adjectiveDone deliberately and on purpose, rather than by accident.

Intentional in a sentence

• The auditor concluded that the error was intentional rather than careless.

• Leaving his name off the invitation was an intentional slight.

Where does intentional come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb tendere, which literally meant 'to stretch' or 'to reach out toward something', and from it came intendere, 'to stretch toward, to aim, to direct one's mind at'. From that verb Latin formed intentio, the noun for the aim or purpose at which a mind is stretched, and medieval Latin built the adjective intentionalis on top of it. English took the word in during the 1600s, originally as a term of philosophy and logic describing things that exist by being aimed at in the mind, before it settled into the plain modern sense of 'done on purpose'. The same tendere root quietly powers a large family of relatives, including 'tension', 'extend', 'attention' and 'tendency', all of which involve some kind of stretching or aiming. Knowing that the core is 'intent' plus '-ion' plus '-al' is the key to the spelling: it is built in tidy blocks, with the troublesome '-tional' ending pronounced as a soft 'shun-al'.

How the word is built

• in- (toward)
• tent (from tendere: to stretch, aim)
• -ion (noun-forming)
• -al (adjective suffix)