Intention Meaning
/ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA course of action that a person intends to follow.
nounThe goal or purpose.
Sentence Examples
That wasn't my intention.
I have no intention of fishing in troubled waters.
I have no intention of going to the wedding.
CEFR Practice Quiz
His ____ was to become a doctor, so he studied hard every day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I have every ____ of finishing this report by the end of the week, despite the many interruptions.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English entencioun, intention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Compare intent. Equivalent to intent + -ion.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“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.”"
— 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
"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.[…]”"
— 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:
"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."
— 2008 June 1, A. Dirk Moses, “Preface”, in Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:
"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"
— 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 19:
"When healing occurs by primary intention, the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously."
— 2007, Carie Ann Braun, Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health, page 49:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
His ____ was to become a doctor, so he studied hard every day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I have every ____ of finishing this report by the end of the week, despite the many interruptions.