Sanitation

How to spell sanitation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce sanitation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sanitation mean?

1. nounThe provision of clean conditions and the safe disposal of waste and sewage to protect public health.

Sanitation in a sentence

• Poor sanitation in the refugee camp led to a rapid spread of disease.

• The city invested millions in water and sanitation infrastructure.

Where does sanitation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin sanitas, meaning 'health' or 'soundness of body and mind', which was itself built on sanus, meaning 'healthy' or 'sound'. The same sanus root gives English the words 'sane' and 'sanitary', all of which circle around the idea of being whole and free from disease. Sanitation itself is a relatively modern coinage, appearing in English in the middle of the nineteenth century as public health reformers grappled with disease in crowded, growing cities. It was formed on the model of 'sanitary' by adding the action-and-condition suffix '-ation', producing a noun for the practical measures (clean water, drainage, waste disposal) that protect health. The spelling trap lives in that unstressed middle vowel: it is sanit-, echoing 'sanity', not 'sanat-' or 'sanot-'.

How the word is built

• sanit- (from Latin sanitas: health, soundness)
• -ation (noun of action/condition)