Reassure

How to spell reassure

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reassure

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reassure mean?

1. verbTo remove someone's doubts or fears and restore their confidence.

Reassure in a sentence

• The manager tried to reassure staff that no jobs would be cut.

• The doctor took a moment to reassure the anxious patient before the scan.

Where does reassure come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built from the prefix re-, meaning 'again', attached to 'assure', which English took from the Old French verb asseurer in the 1300s. That French verb descended from the Late Latin assecurare, formed from ad- meaning 'to' and securus meaning 'free from care' or 'safe', the same root that gives us 'secure'. To assure someone was literally to make them feel safe, and adding re- in the early 1600s produced the sense of restoring that feeling of safety after doubt or alarm had crept in. The doubled s in the middle traces straight back to the Latin assecurare and is the spelling trap many adults stumble on, since the prefix re- meets a word that already begins with a double-letter cluster. Knowing it is genuinely re- plus assure, rather than a single 're-a-sure', helps fix both the e and the double s in memory.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• assure (from Latin assecurare: to make safe, from ad- 'to'
• securus 'free from care')