Memorandum

How to spell memorandum

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce memorandum

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does memorandum mean?

1. nounA short written note or record, often circulated within an organisation to share information or instructions.

Memorandum in a sentence

• The manager sent a memorandum outlining the new holiday policy.

• Each department received a memorandum about the office relocation.

Where does memorandum come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from Latin, where memorandum literally meant 'something that must be remembered'. It is the neuter gerundive of the verb memorare, 'to bring to mind' or 'to call to memory', which itself was built on the adjective memor, meaning 'mindful' or 'remembering'. English adopted the bare Latin form in the fifteenth century as a heading written at the top of notes, in effect saying 'to be remembered', and over time the word came to mean the note itself. The same memor root sits behind everyday relatives such as 'memory', 'memorial', and 'memorise', which is a useful clue to the spelling: the first three letters are mem, not mem-o reduced or doubled. The plural keeps its Latin pedigree as memoranda, although memorandums is also accepted, and the casual clipping 'memo' is now far more common in offices than the full word.

How the word is built

• memor- (mindful, from Latin memor)
• -andum (Latin gerundive suffix: 'that which is to be')