intention

• entention (obsolete)

Borrowed from Middle French intention, entention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentio, intentionem.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɛnʃən/
• Hyphenation: in‧ten‧tion
• Rhymes: -ɛnʃən

• Audio (US)

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intention (countable and uncountable, plural intentions)

1. The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.

   The intention of this legislation is to boost the economy.

   My intention was to marry a wealthy widow.

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

   • (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Johnson (but see Apocryhpha)

     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. (obsolete) Tension; straining, stretching.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970:

     , I.iii.3:

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

3. A stretching or bending of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Locke

     Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.

4. (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; […].

5. (obsolete) Any mental apprehension of an object.
6. (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.

• (purpose behind a specific action): See also Thesaurus:intention

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

• intend
• intent
• well-intended

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

1. Intend

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

intention

1. Genitive singular form of intentio.

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.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

intention f (plural intentions)

1. intention

   dans l'intention de devenir roi

   with the intention of becoming king

   prêter des intentions à quelqu'un ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• intentionné
• intentionnel

• “intention” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

intention f (plural intentions)

1. Alternative form of entention