lesson

English

Etymology

From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“I read, I gather”). Doublet of lection.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛsən/,

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Homophone: lessen
• Hyphenation: les‧son
• Rhymes: -ɛsən

Verb

lesson (third-person singular simple present lessons, present participle lessoning, simple past and past participle lessoned)

1. (archaic) To instruct to teach.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 107:

     And you, my sister—you, who lesson me on endurance, your cheek is pale, and your step languid; even with you, how much has life lost its interest!

Noun

lesson (plural lessons)

1. A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.

   In our school a typical working week consists of around twenty lessons and ten hours of related laboratory work.

2. A learning task assigned to a student; homework.
3. Something learned or to be learned.

   Nature has many lessons to teach to us.

4. Something that serves as a warning or encouragement.

   I hope this accident taught you a lesson!

   The accident was a good lesson to me.

5. A section of the Bible or other religious text read as part of a divine service.

   Here endeth the first lesson.

6. A severe lecture; reproof; rebuke; warning.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, →OCLC:

     She would give her a lesson for walking so late.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.

7. (music) An exercise; a composition serving an educational purpose; a study.

Synonyms

• lear
• (religious reading): lection

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

lesson (third-person singular simple present lessons, present participle lessoning, simple past and past participle lessoned)

1. To give a lesson to; to teach.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee
     Made her companion, and her lessoned
     In all the lore of loue, and goodly womanhead.

   • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, ; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, , →OCLC, stanza LXVIII:

     To rest the weary, and to soothe the sad,
     Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.

Translations

See also

• lesson on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Lesson in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Elsons, Slones, no less, nosels, nosles, solens

Middle English

Noun

lesson

1. Alternative form of lessoun