Object

How to spell object

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce object

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does object mean?

1. nounA material thing that can be seen or touched.
2. nounA goal or purpose that one is trying to achieve.
3. verbTo express disapproval of or opposition to something.

Object in a sentence

• noun

  A strange metal object was found buried in the garden.

• noun

  The whole object of the meeting was to agree a budget.

• verb

  Several residents began to object to the new parking charges.

• noun

  The museum displayed each ancient object behind thick glass.

• noun

  His only object in saving was to buy a house.

• verb

  The lawyer rose to object before the witness could answer.

Where does object come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin objectum, meaning 'a thing put before or presented to the mind', which was the neuter past participle of objicere, 'to throw against' or 'to put in the way'. That verb was built from the prefix ob-, meaning 'against' or 'towards', and jacere, meaning 'to throw', so the literal image is of something flung or set down in front of you. English borrowed it in the late 1300s, first in the sense of a thing perceived or placed before the senses, and the meaning 'to put forward in opposition' grew naturally from the same picture of throwing something in someone's path. The shared jacere root explains why object sits in a large family with project, reject, inject and eject, all of which involve some kind of throwing. Knowing that ob- plus ject means 'throw against' helps fix the single c-free spelling and the -ject ending in memory.

How the word is built

• ob- (against, towards)
• ject (from Latin jacere: to throw) = literally 'thrown towards' or 'thrown against'