sentence

Borrowing from Middle French sentence, from Latin sententia (“way of thinking, opinion, sentiment”), from sentiēns, present participle of sentiō (“to feel, think”); see sentient, sentience, sense, scent.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛntəns/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛntn̩t͡s], [ˈsɛnʔn̩t͡s]

    • Audio (US)

      (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sen‧tence

sentence (plural sentences)

1. (dated) The decision or judgement of a jury or court; a verdict. [from 14th c.]

   The court returned a sentence of guilt in the first charge, but innocence in the second.

2. The judicial order for a punishment to be imposed on a person convicted of a crime. [from 14th c.]

   The judge declared a sentence of death by hanging for the infamous cattle rustler.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

3. A punishment imposed on a person convicted of a crime.
4. (obsolete) A saying, especially from a great person; a maxim, an apophthegm. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in The Essayes, […], book I, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     Men (saith an ancient Greek sentence) are tormented by the opinions they have of things, and not by things themselves.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Broome to this entry?)

5. (grammar) A grammatically complete series of words consisting of a subject and predicate, even if one or the other is implied, and typically beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop. [from 15th c.]

   The children were made to construct sentences consisting of nouns and verbs from the list on the chalkboard.

6. (logic) A formula with no free variables. [from 20th c.]
7. (computing theory) Any of the set of strings that can be generated by a given formal grammar. [from 20th c.]
8. (obsolete) Sense; meaning; significance.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. General Prologue:

     Noght o word spak he moore than was neede,

     And that was seyd in forme and reverence

     And short and quyk and ful of hy sentence ...

   • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes:

     now to the discourse itself, voluble enough, and full of sentence, but that, for the most part, either specious rather than solid, or to his cause nothing pertinent.

   • 1915, T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

     Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse ...

9. (obsolete) One's opinion; manner of thinking. [14th-17th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II:

     My sentence is for open war.

10. (now rare) A pronounced opinion or judgment on a given question. [from 14th c.]
    • Atterbury

      By them [Luther's works] we may pass sentence upon his doctrines.

• verdict
• conviction

• (logic): formula

• (grammar): affirmative sentence, complex sentence, compound sentence, conditional sentence, simple sentence

• sentential

sentence (third-person singular simple present sentences, present participle sentencing, simple past and past participle sentenced)

1. To declare a sentence on a convicted person; to doom; to condemn to punishment.

   The judge sentenced the embezzler to ten years in prison, along with a hefty fine.

   • Dryden

     Nature herself is sentenced in your doom.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

   • 2016 February 21, John Oliver, “Abortion Laws”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 2, HBO:

     And at that point, we have sentenced a child to motherhood.

2. (obsolete) To decree or announce as a sentence.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To utter sententiously.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)

• sentence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sentence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

sentence f

1. sentence (formula with no free variables)
2. sentence (grammar)

• (grammar): věta

From Old French sentence, from Latin sententia.

• IPA^(key): /sɑ̃.tɑ̃s/

• Audio

  (file)

sentence f (plural sentences)

1. sentence
2. verdict
3. maxim, saying, adage

sentence f (5th declension)

1. aphorism
2. maxim

• aforisms
• domu grauds

From Latin sententia.

sentence f (plural sentences)

1. sentence (judgement; verdict)
   • 1532, François Rabelais, Pantagruel:

     […] puis retourna s'asseoir et commença pronuncer la sentence comme s'ensuyt :

     […] then went back and sat down and started to give the verdict as follows:

2. sentence (grammatically complete series of words)
   • 1552, François Rabelais, Le Tiers Livre:

     tant a cause des amphibologies, equivocques, & obscuritez des motz, que de la briefveté des sentences

     (please add an English translation of this quote)