Relation

How to spell relation

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce relation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does relation mean?

1. nounThe way in which two or more things or ideas are connected.
2. nounA person connected to another by blood or marriage.

Relation in a sentence

• The report examined the relation between diet and sleep.

• A distant relation left her a small inheritance.

• There is a close relation between the two sets of figures.

• Every relation on his mother's side attended the wedding.

Where does relation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin relatio, meaning 'a bringing back' or 'a reporting', which was formed from the verb referre, 'to carry back' or 'to report'. That verb combined re-, meaning 'back', with ferre, meaning 'to bring or carry'; the spelling lat comes from latus, the irregular past participle that Latin used for ferre. English took the word through Old French relacion in the 1300s, where it first meant an account or a telling of events, the sense still preserved in the phrase 'in relation to'. From the idea of how one report connected to another grew the meanings of connection, kinship, and the bond between things or people. The same ferre root that hides inside the silent-looking lat also surfaces in 'refer', 'transfer', and 'relate', which is a handy reminder that the middle of relation is spelled lat, not late.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• lat (carried, from Latin latus, the past participle of ferre 'to bring')
• -ion (noun of action or state)