Season

How to spell season

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce season

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does season mean?

1. nounOne of the natural divisions of the year, or a recognised period for a particular activity.
2. verbTo add salt, pepper, herbs, or spices to food to improve its flavour.

Season in a sentence

• noun

  The rainy season floods the lower roads every year.

• verb

  Remember to season the soup with a little salt and pepper.

• noun

  Ticket prices rise sharply during the holiday season.

• verb

  Chefs season the meat generously before it hits the grill.

Where does season come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from the Old French seson, which itself came from the Latin satio, meaning 'a sowing' or 'the time for planting'. That Latin noun was built on the verb serere, 'to sow', so the earliest idea behind the word was the part of the year when seeds went into the ground. By the time it settled into Middle English in the 1200s it had broadened from 'sowing time' to any of the natural divisions of the year, and then to any fitting or proper period for something. The culinary sense, to 'season' food, grew from a related Old French use meaning to ripen or bring to a suitable state, as fruit ripens in its proper time. The quiet trap in the spelling is the unstressed second syllable: the -son ending sounds like a soft 'un' yet is spelled with an 'o', and the single 's' before the vowel is voiced like a 'z'.

How the word is built

• season (from Latin satio: a sowing, planting time); no separable affixes in modern English