Project

How to spell project

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce project

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does project mean?

1. nounA planned piece of work or undertaking with a defined goal.
2. verbTo cast, throw, or display something forward, such as light, an image, or one's voice.

Project in a sentence

• noun

  The construction project ran six months over schedule.

• verb

  The speaker learned to project her voice to the back of the hall.

• noun

  Her team finished the research project ahead of the deadline.

• verb

  The cinema can project the film onto a much larger screen.

Where does project come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Project comes from the Latin projectum, the neuter past participle of proicere, which meant literally 'to throw forward'. That verb joined pro, meaning 'forward', with iacere, meaning 'to throw', so the original image is something cast or flung out ahead. English picked it up in the late Middle Ages, at first in the literal sense of something jutting out and in the abstract sense of a plan 'thrown forward' into the future. From the planning sense grew the modern noun for an organised piece of work, while the throwing sense survives in the verb, whether you project an image onto a wall or project your voice across a room. The same jacere root still powers a crowd of relatives such as eject, inject, reject and trajectory, all of which involve some kind of throwing or hurling.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• ject (from Latin jacere: to throw)