Mention

How to spell mention

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mention

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mention mean?

1. verbTo refer to something briefly or in passing.
2. nounA brief reference to or remark about something.

Mention in a sentence

• verb

  She forgot to mention the meeting time in her email.

• noun

  The contract makes no mention of late payment penalties.

• verb

  The report did not mention the rising costs at all.

• noun

  There was a brief mention of the project in the newsletter.

Where does mention come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun mentio, which meant 'a calling to mind' or 'a making note of something'. That noun grew from the very old root men-, meaning 'to think' or 'to keep in mind', the same root that gives us 'mind', 'mental', and 'comment'. English took the word through Old French mencion during the 1300s, where it carried the sense of a brief reference made in passing. Over time it settled into both a noun for such a passing reference and a verb meaning to refer to something briefly. The 't' before the '-ion' is the spelling trap: the ending sounds like 'shun', which tempts some writers toward '-tion', and that is exactly what mention has, so the form is regular once you remember the 'ment' core meaning 'mind'.

How the word is built

• ment- (from Latin mentio, a calling to mind, on the root men-: to think)
• -ion (noun/action suffix)