Skip to main content
PlainSpell

summon

/ˈsʌmən/verb, noun

summon is spelled S-U-M-M-O-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, summon means “To call people together; to convene; to convoke” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in summon?

Letters6: S-U-M-M-O-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.5 times per million words; the 13,897th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is summon?

Summon appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th 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 summon?

  • /ˈsʌmən/

Summon has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

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

Forms of summon

  • summons present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • summoning participle, present
  • summoned participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

What does summon mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To call people together; to convene; to convoke.

  2. 2

    To ask someone to come; to send for.

  3. 3

    To order (goods) and have delivered

  4. 4

    To rouse oneself to exert a skill.

    Joseph needed to summon all his reserve to keep his self-control, for no sooner had Asa voiced his request than Joseph recalled his remark to Aaron about a child being given to this couple in lieu of their giving Mary to him.

  5. 5

    To call a resource by magic.

  6. 6

    To summons; convene.

  7. 7

    colloquialslangTo impose such a fine or penalty, or to issue a notice thereof.

    The police summoned the driver for speeding.

noun

  1. 1

    A creature magically summoned to do the summoner's bidding.

  2. 2

    call, command, order

    The deceased was 58 years of age, was the picture of health even five or six hours prior to his death, when suddenly the grim messenger came with a summon from a Higher Tribunal, calling him to duties above.

  3. 3

    colloquialslangA fine; a fee or monetary penalty incurred for breaking the law; usually for a minor offence such as a traffic violation.

    You better pay off the parking summon tomorrow before you kena interest on it.

  4. 4

    colloquialslangA notice of an infringement of the law, usually incurring such a penalty; a citation or ticket.

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

Summon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchconvoquer, convier (to call people together), rassembler (to rouse oneself to exert a skill)
Germanzusammenrufen, herbeirufen (to call people together), zusammennehmen (to rouse oneself to exert a skill), (Hilfe) holen (to ask someone to come), vorladen (law: to order someone to appear in court)
Portugueseconvocar (to call people together), intimar (law: to order someone to appear in court), evocar, invocar (to call a resource by magic)
Spanishconvocar, llamar, reunir, citar (to call people together)

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 summon come from?

From Anglo-Norman somoundre, from Old French sumundre, from Latin summonēre, itself from sub + monēre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *monéyeti, causative from *men- (“to think”). Compare typologically from the same PIE root mention, Russian помина́ть (pominátʹ), упомина́ть (upominátʹ) (developed less further, keeping strong relation with по́мнить (pómnitʹ)), also compare помина́й как зва́ли (pomináj kak zváli) (<+ звать (zvatʹ)).

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

What to look up after summon