List

How to spell list

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce list

What does list mean?

1. nounA series of names, items, or figures written or printed together, usually one after another.
2. verbTo record or set out a series of items, one after another.
3. verbOf a ship, to lean or tilt to one side.

List in a sentence

• noun

  She added milk and eggs to the shopping list.

• verb

  Please list every expense on the claim form.

• verb

  The damaged tanker began to list heavily to starboard.

• noun

  The guest list for the wedding ran to two hundred names.

• verb

  The catalogue will list each product by category.

• verb

  As the cargo shifted, the ferry started to list alarmingly.

Where does list come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The everyday noun meaning 'a series of items' grew out of the Old English word 'liste', which referred to a border, hem, or strip of cloth, a sense still preserved in the 'selvage' edge of fabric and in old terms for the bordered enclosure where tournaments were held. The path to 'a written series' came through the idea of a strip or band on which names and entries were recorded; this sense entered English in the 1600s, reinforced by the related French and Italian forms (liste, lista) that all trace back to the same Germanic source. The nautical sense, meaning a ship leaning to one side, is a separate development and probably comes from an older English verb 'list', meaning to please, desire, or incline, so a ship that 'lists' is literally one that 'inclines'. Because the spelling is short and entirely phonetic, the word carries no real trap; the interest lies in how one small word covers a strip of cloth, a column of names, and the tilt of a vessel.

How the word is built

• list (single root; from Germanic root meaning a border, strip, or edge)