Promise

How to spell promise

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce promise

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does promise mean?

1. nounA declaration that one will definitely do, give, or refrain from something.
2. verbTo give an assurance that one will definitely do or provide something.

Promise in a sentence

• verb

  He made a promise to repay the loan by the end of the month.

• noun

  She kept her promise and arrived exactly on time.

• verb

  The contractors promise to finish the kitchen before the weekend.

• noun

  The manager made a clear promise to review every complaint personally.

Where does promise come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Promise comes from the Latin promissum, meaning 'a thing sent forth' or 'a pledge', which is the past participle of promittere, 'to send forward' or 'to let go forth'. That verb joined pro, meaning 'forward' or 'forth', with mittere, the verb 'to send', which also gives us missile, mission, and transmit. The literal image is of words sent ahead of you, a commitment cast out in advance of the deed. English took the word in during the 1400s, and by then it carried both the legal sense of a binding pledge and the everyday sense of an expressed intention. The same mittere root is why the spelling ends in -ise rather than -ize, a quiet reminder that the word is built on 'mise', not the Greek-style verb ending; this spelling is therefore identical in British, American, and Canadian English.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, forward)
• mise (from Latin missus: sent, put)