Suggestion

How to spell suggestion

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce suggestion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suggestion mean?

1. nounAn idea or proposal put forward for someone to consider.
2. nounA slight indication or trace of something.

Suggestion in a sentence

• The manager welcomed every suggestion from the team during the meeting.

• There was a faint suggestion of lemon in the dessert.

• Her suggestion to leave an hour early saved us from the traffic.

• His voice carried a suggestion of doubt as he read the report.

Where does suggestion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin suggestio, a noun built on the verb suggerere, which meant 'to bring up' or 'to supply'. That verb combined the prefix sub-, meaning 'under' or 'up from below', with gerere, meaning 'to carry' or 'to bring', so the literal idea was of carrying something up and putting it forward for consideration. The same gerere root carries through into a family of English words such as 'gesture', 'digest', and 'register', all of which involve carrying or bringing something along. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Old French suggestioun, where it often carried the darker sense of prompting someone toward wrongdoing. Over time the meaning softened into the everyday idea of putting forward an idea or a hint. The doubled g, easy to forget, is a fossil of the way Latin sub- assimilated to sug- before the g of gerere.

How the word is built

• sug- (form of sub-: under, up from below)
• gest (from gerere: to carry, bring)
• -ion (noun of action)