Link Centre Dictionary

sentence

sen·tence

UK/ˈsɛn.təns/ US/ˈsɛn.tn̩(t)s/ common
noun (3) verb (1)

noun

1.

a string of words satisfying the grammatical rules of a language

  • “he always spoke in grammatical sentences”
2.

(criminal law) a final judgment of guilty in a criminal case and the punishment that is imposed

  • “the conviction came as no surprise”
Synonyms
Antonyms
3.

the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned

  • “he served a prison term of 15 months”
  • “his sentence was 5 to 10 years”
  • “he is doing time in the county jail”
Synonyms

verb

1.

pronounce a sentence on (somebody) in a court of law

  • “He was condemned to ten years in prison”
Synonyms

Origin

Borrowed from Middle French sentence, from Latin sententia (“way of thinking, opinion, sentiment”), from sentiēns, present participle of sentiō (“to feel, think”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

Phrases

  • circle sentence
  • cleft sentence
  • composite sentence
  • Concord sentence
  • death sentence
  • donkey sentence
  • fused sentence
  • garden-path sentence

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Part of

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.