Sentence

How to spell sentence

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sentence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sentence mean?

1. nounA set of words that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and verb and expressing a statement, question, or command.
2. nounThe punishment assigned to someone found guilty by a court.
3. verbTo declare the punishment that a court imposes on a guilty person.

Sentence in a sentence

• noun

  The teacher asked us to underline the verb in each sentence.

• noun

  The judge handed down a five-year sentence for the offence.

• verb

  The court will sentence him next month after the reports are filed.

• noun

  He rewrote the opening sentence of his report three times.

• noun

  Her lawyer hoped to reduce the sentence on appeal.

• verb

  A magistrate can sentence a driver to a fine or a ban.

Where does sentence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin sententia, meaning 'an opinion, a way of thinking, or a judgement', which was built on the verb sentire, 'to feel, perceive, or hold an opinion'. In Roman usage a sententia could be a maxim, a vote, or a court's formal decision, and that judicial flavour explains the modern legal meaning of a punishment handed down by a judge. English took the word from Old French sentence in the 1200s, where it already carried both the sense of an authoritative ruling and the sense of a considered statement. The grammatical meaning, a complete group of words expressing a thought, grew out of that idea of a complete expressed opinion. The close relatives 'sentiment' and 'consent' share the same sentire root, all turning on the idea of feeling or holding a view. The tricky spelling point is the unstressed middle, '-ten-', which sounds like a vague schwa but must be written with an 'e', and the soft '-ce' ending rather than '-se'.

How the word is built

• sent- (from Latin sentire: to feel, to be of an opinion)
• -ence (noun suffix marking a state or thing)