Redemption

How to spell redemption

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce redemption

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does redemption mean?

1. nounThe act of being saved, freed, or restored from sin, error, or a bad situation.
2. nounThe act of paying off a debt or buying back a bond, voucher, or other security.

Redemption in a sentence

• The prisoner saw the apprenticeship as a path to redemption and a fresh start.

• The bond reaches redemption in ten years, when the issuer must repay its full value.

• The disgraced manager sought redemption by quietly repairing the damage he had caused.

• The voucher carries no cash value upon redemption at the till.

Where does redemption come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin redemptio, a noun of action meaning 'a buying back' or 'ransom'. It was built on the verb redimere, formed from the prefix red- 'back' and emere 'to buy' or 'to take', so the literal idea was paying to recover something or someone, especially buying a captive out of slavery. The word travelled into English through Old French in the 1300s, and from the start it carried a strong religious charge: Christian theology spoke of Christ 'buying back' humanity from sin, which is why the word still feels weighty and moral. Alongside the spiritual sense, the older commercial meaning never disappeared, surviving in modern phrases about redeeming bonds, vouchers, or pawned goods. The same emere root that means 'to buy' also hides inside 'example', 'exempt', and 'premium', and the silent p that appears in dempt is a clue to that buried Latin verb, which helps explain the unexpected -mpt- cluster in the spelling.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• dempt (from emere: to buy, take)
• -ion (noun of action)