Resolution

How to spell resolution

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce resolution

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resolution mean?

1. nounA firm decision to do or not do something.
2. nounA formal proposal voted on and adopted by an assembly or committee.
3. nounThe amount of fine detail an image, screen, or camera can show.
4. nounThe act of solving a problem or settling a dispute.

Resolution in a sentence

• Her resolution this January was to walk to work every morning.

• The council passed a resolution to widen the high street.

• The photo looked blurry because the camera was set to a low resolution.

• Both sides welcomed a swift resolution of the contract dispute.

• He made a quiet resolution to spend less on takeaway food.

• Shareholders approved the resolution at the annual meeting.

Where does resolution come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin resolutio, a noun built on the verb resolvere, which literally meant 'to loosen again' or 'to untie', from re- and solvere meaning 'to release or dissolve'. In late Latin the sense extended from physically loosening something to mentally breaking a problem down into parts and thereby settling it. English took the word in during the late 1300s and 1400s, at first for the dissolving or breaking up of a substance, and gradually for the firm settling of the mind on a course of action. The same solvere root sits inside 'solve', 'dissolve', and 'solvent', which is a useful reminder that resolution is about loosening a knot, whether a tangle in your thinking or a dispute between people. The tricky spelling is the unstressed middle vowel, written -lu-, plus the single s where some writers want to double it.

How the word is built

• re- (intensive/again)
• solut- (from Latin solvere: to loosen, release)
• -ion (noun of action)