intention definition

English intention definition

Alternative forms

• entention (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English entencioun, intention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Compare intent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɛnʃən/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧ten‧tion
• Rhymes: -ɛnʃən
• Homophone: intension

Noun

intention (countable and uncountable, plural intentions)

1. A course of action that a person intends to follow.

   My intention was to marry a wealthy widow.

   It’s easy to promise anything when you have no intention of fulfilling any of it.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:intention

   • a. 1784, attributed to Samuel Johnson

     Hell is paved with good intentions.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

     “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”

2. The goal or purpose.

   The intention of this legislation is to boost the economy.

   • 2008 June 1, A. Dirk Moses, “Preface”, in Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:

     Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.

3. (obsolete) Tension; straining, stretching.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:

     , I.iii.3:

     cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].

4. A stretching or bending of the mind toward an object or a purpose (an intent); closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242, book I, page 19:

     it is attention : when the mind with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, considers it on all sides, and will not be called off by the ordinary solicitation of other ideas, it is that we call intention or study

5. (obsolete) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
   • 1732, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments …, Prop. II, p.159:

     In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts; […].

6. (obsolete) Any mental apprehension of an object.
7. (medicine) The process of the healing of a wound.
   • 2007, Carie Ann Braun, Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health, p.49:

     When healing occurs by primary intention, the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.

Derived terms

• counter-intention
• intentional
• secondary intention
• the road to hell is paved with good intentions
• well-intentioned

Related terms

• intend
• intent
• well-intended

Translations

Verb

intention (third-person singular simple present intentions, present participle intentioning, simple past and past participle intentioned)

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) To intend.

Translations

References

• intention at OneLook Dictionary Search.
• intention in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

---

Finnish intention definition

Noun

intention

1. Genitive singular form of intentio.

---

French intention definition

Etymology

From Middle French entention, from Old French entencion, borrowed from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Respelled intention in Middle French to more closely match the Classical Latin form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

intention f (plural intentions)

1. intention

   dans l'intention de devenir roi

   with the intention of becoming king

   prêter des intentions à quelqu'un

   to accuse someone of intentions ("motives")

Derived terms

Further reading

• “intention”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

---

Middle French intention definition

Noun

intention f (plural intentions)

1. Alternative form of entention