Sanction

How to spell sanction

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sanction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sanction mean?

1. nounA penalty or coercive measure imposed to enforce a law, rule, or international obligation.
2. nounOfficial permission or approval for an action.
3. verbTo give official permission or approval for something.

Sanction in a sentence

• noun

  The committee voted to impose a financial sanction on the offending firm.

• noun

  The project went ahead only after it received formal sanction from the board.

• verb

  The council refused to sanction the new housing development near the river.

• noun

  Trade with the region halted after the government announced a strict sanction.

• noun

  The merger needs the regulator's sanction before it can proceed.

• verb

  Senior management would never sanction such reckless spending.

Where does sanction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Sanction comes from the Latin sanctio, meaning a binding law or decree, which was formed from the verb sancire, 'to make sacred, to confirm, to ratify by a solemn act'. That verb in turn rests on sanctus, 'holy' or 'consecrated', the same root that gives us 'saint' and 'sanctuary'. The original idea was a law made binding by a clause that promised a reward for obedience or a penalty for disobedience, and this double edge is why the modern word carries two opposite meanings at once: a sanction can be official approval or it can be a punishment. English took it through Old French in the 1500s, first in the legal sense of a decree, later broadening to both endorsement and penalty. Because both senses descend from the same idea of making a rule binding, the spelling stays identical no matter which meaning is intended.

How the word is built

• sanct- (from sanctus: holy, made binding)
• -ion (noun/action suffix)