Relationship

How to spell relationship

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce relationship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does relationship mean?

1. nounThe way in which two or more things or people are connected or affect each other.
2. nounAn emotional or romantic connection between people.

Relationship in a sentence

• The report examined the relationship between diet and energy levels.

• They have been in a committed relationship for five years.

• There is a clear relationship between rising costs and falling sales.

• A strong relationship depends on honest communication.

Where does relationship come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from 'relation', which English took from the Latin relatio, a noun formed on the verb referre, meaning 'to carry back' or 'to bring back', from re- ('back') and ferre ('to carry or bear'). In Latin a relatio was literally a carrying back, and the sense broadened into the idea of a report and then a connection between things that are brought into reference with one another. English absorbed 'relation' through Old French in the late Middle Ages, and around the early 1600s writers attached the old native suffix -ship, the same one in 'friendship' and 'hardship', which marks a state or condition. The combination named the condition of being related, and over time it narrowed in everyday speech to mean the bond between people, especially a romantic one. The spelling trap is the join between the three pieces: the -tion is pronounced 'shun' yet written with a t, and the final -ship is an ordinary word that helps anchor the ending.

How the word is built

• relate (Latin relatus: carried back, connected)
• -ion (noun of state)
• -ship (native condition/status suffix)