Other forms: intended, intending, intends
To intend something is to have it as your plan. I intend to be there by six. She intended to call, but the day ran away from her.
The pattern is intend to do something; intend doing exists but sounds older. It also covers what a thing is meant for or meant as, as in the book is intended for beginners, no offence intended, the money was intended as a gift. The noun is intention and the adjective is intentional, so an intended consequence is one you planned and an unintended one is the mess that follows it. Intend is a shade more deliberate than plan or mean, because it names the decision rather than the arrangements. In law it carries real weight, since whether someone intended the harm is often the whole question.
1verbintendTo have something as your plan or purpose.~94%
“We intend to leave before the traffic builds up.”
synonyms: plan, mean, aim
2verbmeanTo mean something to be used, understood or received in a particular way.~6%
“The course is intended for people with no experience at all.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: mean
Intend came through Old French entendre from Latin intendō, and the Middle English verb intenden meant to direct your attention towards something. The root underneath is the one behind tension and tendon: a stretching. To intend is to stretch your mind out towards a thing you have not done yet.
Proto-Indo-European
*tend-
Latin
intendo
Old French
entendre
Middle English
intenden
English, today
intend
Built from
From Middle English intenden, entenden (“direct (one’s) attention towards”), borrowed from Old French entendre, from Latin intendo. See also intensive. a doublet of entendre. Largely displaced native myntan, whence dialectal mint.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA