Reception

How to spell reception

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reception

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reception mean?

1. nounThe area or desk where visitors and guests are greeted and dealt with on arrival.
2. nounA formal social gathering held to welcome someone or to mark an occasion.
3. nounThe quality with which a radio, television, or phone signal is received.

Reception in a sentence

• Please leave your visitor badge at reception when you go.

• The wedding reception was held in a marquee behind the hall.

• Phone reception in the tunnel dropped to nothing.

• The hotel reception was busy with new arrivals checking in.

• Guests mingled over drinks at the evening reception.

• Poor television reception left the picture full of static.

Where does reception come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Reception comes from the Latin receptio, a noun built on the verb recipere, meaning 'to take back' or 'to receive', which itself joins the prefix re- ('back, again') with capere ('to take'). The same capere root produces a whole family of English words including 'accept', 'capture', 'receipt' and 'capable', all carrying the idea of taking or holding. English borrowed reception through Old French in the late 1300s, at first for the act of receiving something, and the meaning widened over the centuries to cover the welcoming of guests, a formal social gathering, and eventually the desk where visitors are received. The modern sense of radio or television 'reception', meaning the quality with which a signal is taken in, only emerged in the early twentieth century. The spelling trap is the soft 'c' followed by 't', producing the -ception cluster heard in 'perception' and 'deception'.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• cept (from capere: to take, receive)
• -ion (noun suffix)