Other forms: sanctions, sanctioned, sanctioning
A sanction is an official punishment, most often one country's penalty against another. Trade cut off, assets frozen, flights stopped.
The plural is where the political sense lives: economic sanctions, sanctions against a regime, lifting sanctions. The singular can also mean a penalty inside an organisation, as in a disciplinary sanction. Then comes the trap, because the verb means almost the opposite: to sanction something is to approve it officially. One word, a punishment and a permission, and only the sentence around it tells you which.
1nounsanctionAn official penalty imposed on a country or a person.
“The sanction was lifted after two years.”
2verbgiveTo give official approval or permission for something.
“The committee sanctioned the extra spending.”
Also accepted in games: sanctions
SANCTion → the SAINT's stamp, which can bless or punish
The saint's stamp on the paper says yes. The very same stamp, on another day and another paper, says no and there is a price to pay.
hooks ontosaint
Latin
sānctiō
Middle French
sanction
English, today
sanction
From Middle French sanction, from Latin sānctiō. From Middle French sanction, from Latin sānctiō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA