Response

How to spell response

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce response

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does response mean?

1. nounAn answer or reaction given to something said, asked, or done.

Response in a sentence

• Her response to the job offer arrived within an hour.

• The charity was overwhelmed by the public response to its appeal.

Where does response come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin respondere, which combined re-, meaning 'back' or 'in return', with spondere, meaning 'to pledge' or 'to promise'. The literal idea was to pledge something in return, and the related noun responsum came to mean 'an answer' or 'a reply'. English picked up the word through Old French respons during the 1300s, at first in religious contexts where a 'response' was the part sung or spoken by the congregation in reply to the priest. The same spondere root survives in 'sponsor', someone who makes a solemn pledge, and in 'spouse', literally a person who has been promised in marriage. The trap in the spelling is the unstressed second vowel: it is heard as a vague schwa but written 'o', giving res-PONS-e rather than the tempting 'responce'.

How the word is built

• re- (back, in return)
• spons (from Latin spondere: to pledge or promise)
• -e