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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

intention.

A course of action that a person intends to follow.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/

  1. A course of action that a person intends to follow.

    countable
    My intention was to marry a wealthy widow.

  2. A goal or purpose.

    countable
    The intention of this legislation is to boost the economy.

  3. Tension; straining, stretching.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  4. A stretching or bending of the mind toward an object or a purpose (an intent); closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  5. The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  6. Any mental apprehension of an object.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  7. A process of the healing of a wound.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *téndeti Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin intendō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin intentiōbor. Old French entencionder. Middle French ententionbor. Middle English entencioun English intention From Middle English entencioun, intention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Compare intent. Equivalent to intent + -ion.

verb/ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/

  1. To intend.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *téndeti Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin intendō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin intentiōbor. Old French entencionder. Middle French ententionbor. Middle English entencioun English intention From Middle English entencioun, intention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Compare intent. Equivalent to intent + -ion.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.