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sentence

sen·tence[ˈsɛn.tn̩(t)s]noun, verb

sentence is spelled S-E-N-T-E-N-C-E, 2 syllables: sen·tence. The wrong spelling people search most is sentance: about 400 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Sentence is a noun meaning “The decision or judgement of a jury or court; a verdict”. The plural of sentence is sentences.

How many letters and syllables are in sentence?

Letters8: S-E-N-T-E-N-C-E
Syllables2: sen·tence
In writing38 times per million words; the 2,581st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, sentance, about 400 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell sentence?

Sentence is spelled S-E-N-T-E-N-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for sentence in either form.

sentencethe right spelling2,280 searches a month
sentancea in place of e400 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is sentence?

Sentence appears 38 times per million words in written English, the 2,581st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sentence?

  • /ˈsɛn.təns/
  • US [ˈsɛn.tn̩(t)s]
  • US [ˈsɛn.ʔn̩(t)s]

Sentence has 2 syllables, split sen·tence in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sentence.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of sentence

  • sentences plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sentencing participle, present
  • sentenced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sentence mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    datedThe decision or judgement of a jury or court; a verdict.

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

  2. 2

    The judicial order for a punishment to be imposed on a person convicted of a crime.

    The judge declared a sentence of death by hanging for the infamous child rapist.

  3. 3

    A punishment imposed on a person convicted of a crime.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA saying, especially from a great person; a maxim, an apophthegm.

  5. 5

    A grammatically complete series of words consisting of a subject and predicate, even if one or the other is implied. In modern writing, when using, e.g., the Latin, Greek or Cyrillic alphabets, typically beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop or other punctuation.

    Near-synonym: clause

  6. 6

    A formula with no free variables.

  7. 7

    Any of the set of strings that can be generated by a given formal grammar.

  8. 8

    obsoleteSense; meaning; significance.

verb

  1. 1

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

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

  2. 2

    To decree, announce, or pass as a sentence.

    […] upholding Idaho statute mandating that court "shall" sentence death upon finding an aggravating circumstance "unless" it finds outweighing mitigating circumstances because satisfies individualized sentencing requirement […]

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo utter sententiously.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate sentence?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of sentence: sent..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sentence in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjugement, peine ((dated) decision or judgement of a court – see…), sentence (punishment imposed on a person convicted of a…), phrase (grammatically complete series of words…), punir, condamner (declare a sentence on a convicted person)
GermanUrteil ((dated) decision or judgement of a court – see…), Strafe (punishment imposed on a person convicted of a…), Satz (grammatically complete series of words…), verurteilen (declare a sentence on a convicted person), Verurteilung, Schuldspruch (judicial order for punishment)
Portuguesesentença ((dated) decision or judgement of a court – see…), pena (punishment imposed on a person convicted of a…), frase, período (grammatically complete series of words…), sentenciar (declare a sentence on a convicted person), condenação (judicial order for punishment)
Spanishsentencia, fazaña ((dated) decision or judgement of a court – see…), sentenciar, condenar (declare a sentence on a convicted person), condena (judicial order for punishment)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sentence come from?

Borrowed 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”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sentence