Other forms: sentenced, sentences, sentencing
A sentence is a complete piece of writing that stands on its own: a capital letter at the front, a full stop at the end. This is a sentence. So is the one you have just read.
In court the same word means the punishment a judge hands down — five years, a fine, community service — and the judge sentences you to it, so it works as a verb too. A life sentence, a suspended sentence, serving a sentence: all courtroom. The two meanings feel unconnected, and the thread between them is the Latin word for an opinion pronounced out loud. Grammar keeps its own rules around it: a sentence needs a subject and a verb, which is why 'Because it was raining.' is not one. And note the preposition — you are sentenced TO something: sentenced to four years, sentenced to death.
1nounsentenceA complete set of words that makes sense on its own, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop.~35%
“Read the first sentence again and tell me what it actually says.”
2nounlawThe punishment a court decides on for someone found guilty.~35%
“He is serving a four-year sentence in an open prison.”
3verbstateTo state officially, as a judge or court, what punishment someone will receive.~30%
“The court sentenced her to two hundred hours of community service.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 17 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Behind sentence is Latin sententia, an opinion or a way of thinking, from sentiō, 'to feel, to think', and the Proto-Indo-European root *sent-, 'to feel'. It reached English through Middle French. A sentence was first what somebody thought and then said aloud, which covers both the judge pronouncing an opinion and the grammarian wanting a finished thought.
Proto-Indo-European
*sent- — to feel
Latin
sententia — way of thinking, opinion, sentiment
Middle French
sentence
English, today
sentence
Built from
Middle French sentence, from Latin sententia (“way of thinking, opinion, sentiment”), from sentiēns, present participle of sentiō (“to feel, think”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European sent- (“to feel”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA