Respond

How to spell respond

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce respond

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does respond mean?

1. verbTo answer or react to something said or done.

Respond in a sentence

• Please respond to the email before the meeting starts.

• Firefighters respond quickly to every emergency call.

Where does respond come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Respond comes from the Latin respondere, which combined re-, meaning 'back', with spondere, meaning 'to pledge, promise, or solemnly vow'. The original sense was almost contractual: to pledge something in return, the idea of answering a promise with a promise of your own. Roman religious and legal life leaned heavily on spondere, and the same root gives us 'spouse', someone formally pledged in marriage, as well as 'sponsor' and 'despondent'. English took the word in through Old French respondre during the 1300s, gradually softening the sense from a formal pledge in return to the everyday meaning of simply answering or reacting. The single 'd' at the end and the 's' (not 'c') in the middle are worth fixing in memory, since the noun 'response' and adjective 'responsible' all keep that same spond spelling.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• spond (from spondere: to pledge or promise)