season

UK[ˈsiː.zn̩]US[ˈsi.zn̩]

nounA24 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,078 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: seasons, seasoned

A season is one of the four stretches the year falls into, each with its own weather and its own clothes. Coats out in the first cold week of autumn; strawberries in the shops for a few weeks in summer and then gone until next year.

Anything with a fixed run of the year takes the word: the football season, the rainy season, the season for planting beans. Television borrowed it too — a season is a set of episodes released together, and British television calls the same thing a series. Food that is in season is at its best and cheapest right now, and out of season means shipped a long way to get here. Then there is the verb, which has nothing to do with the calendar: you season food with salt and pepper, and seasoning is the general name for the stuff you do it with. Call somebody a seasoned driver and you mean what happens to wood left out to dry — time has made them tougher and steadier.

Definitions of season

1nounseasonOne of the four divisions of the year, each with its own weather.A2~3%
“Autumn is my favourite season.”
2nounstretchThe stretch of the year when something happens or is available.B1~13%
“Tickets sell out early in the football season.”
3nounrunA run of episodes of a television programme released together.B1~82%
“The third season came out all at once.”
4verbflavorTo add salt, pepper and spices to food until it tastes right.B2~2%
“Season the sauce and taste it again.”
- Said"Season it as you go; you can't fix it at the end."
- WrittenShe seasoned the stew with a pinch of this and a shake of that, and never measured once.
- UsedSeason the meat generously before it hits the pan.
- ContrastSeason, not salt. Salting is one part of seasoning; seasoning is salt, pepper, herbs and spice, judged by taste. salt →
- Not thisAdding sugar to a cake is not seasoning it. Season is for savoury food and its balance.
- SimplySeason the soup. Add pepper and salt.
Patternseason sth with + noun · season to taste · well seasoned · seasoning

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 146 sentences found in the wild and placed 146 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

SEASON → the right SEASON, the right taste

A season is the right time of year, and to season food is to add the salt at the right moment, until it tastes right.

Phrases it lives in

in season — at the time of year when it is fresh and plentiful
out of season — outside that time, so scarce or expensive
the festive season — Christmas and the new year

Also practised as

verbTo add salt, pepper, and spices until the food tastes right.

Where it comes from

A season was the sowing time. Old French seson came from Latin satiō, the act of planting, from serō, to sow — the same ancient root that grew English seed and sow. The year was cut into four by the one job that could not wait.

Proto-Indo-European
*seh₁- — to sow, plant
Latin
satiō — act of sowing, planting
Old French
seson — time of sowing, seeding
Middle English
sesoun — time of the year
English, today
season

Built from

serō · Latin — to sow, plant

From Middle English sesoun (“time of the year”), from Old French seson (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serō (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), sǣd (“seed”). a doublet of saison. Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Time & Calendar, Music, Art & Culture, News & Communication

Practise this word

season in the wild

Beginning in the twenty-third season, Underwood replaced Perry, alongside returning judges Bryan and Richie.
American Idol
After the premiere of its 21st season in September 2019, the series became the longest-running primetime live-action series on American television.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The 27th season premiered on September 25, 2025.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The series was revived by ABC in 2025, with the tenth season premiering in February 2026.
Scrubs (TV series)
Edan Alexander joined the cast as Louis, a foster child, introduced in the 12th and final season.
Two and a Half Men

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the serō family

season

season — used about once every 105 pages · #1,078 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of season

1nounseasonOne of the four divisions of the year, each with its own weather.A2~3%

“Autumn is my favourite season.”

2nounstretchThe stretch of the year when something happens or is available.B1~13%

“Tickets sell out early in the football season.”

3nounrunA run of episodes of a television programme released together.B1~82%

“The third season came out all at once.”

4verbflavorTo add salt, pepper and spices to food until it tastes right.B2~2%

“Season the sauce and taste it again.”

Said"Season it as you go; you can't fix it at the end."
WrittenShe seasoned the stew with a pinch of this and a shake of that, and never measured once.
UsedSeason the meat generously before it hits the pan.
ContrastSeason, not salt. Salting is one part of seasoning; seasoning is salt, pepper, herbs and spice, judged by taste. salt →
Not thisAdding sugar to a cake is not seasoning it. Season is for savoury food and its balance.
SimplySeason the soup. Add pepper and salt.

Patternseason sth with + noun · season to taste · well seasoned · seasoning

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 146 sentences found in the wild and placed 146 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.