Occasion

How to spell occasion

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce occasion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does occasion mean?

1. nounA particular event, or a notable time at which something happens.
2. verbTo cause or bring about something.

Occasion in a sentence

• noun

  The wedding was a joyful occasion for the whole family.

• verb

  A small typing error can occasion a long delay in processing.

• noun

  On more than one occasion the train arrived late.

• verb

  The new policy may occasion some confusion among staff.

Where does occasion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin occasio, which meant an opportunity, a favourable moment, or a juncture of events. That noun was built on the verb occidere, formed from ob, meaning toward or down, and cadere, meaning to fall; so an occasion was literally something that falls toward you, a moment that drops into your lap. The same cadere root that means to fall also underlies a whole family of English words such as cadence, accident, and decay, all of which carry a buried sense of falling. English took occasion in during the 1300s by way of Old French occasioun, keeping the noun sense of a suitable time or a particular event. The tricky spelling sits in the middle: the doubled c followed by the -sion ending often tempts writers toward a single c or an -tion spelling, but the Latin oc- plus cas explains why both letters belong there.

How the word is built

• oc- (variant of ob-, meaning toward or down)
• cas (from Latin cadere, to fall)
• -ion (noun suffix)