I. ˈsen-t ə n(t)s, -t ə nz noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin sententia feeling, opinion, from * sentent-, *sentens, irregular present participle of sentire to feel — more at sense
Date: 14th century
1. obsolete : opinion ; especially : a conclusion given on request or reached after deliberation
2.
a. : judgment 2a ; specifically : one formally pronounced by a court or judge in a criminal proceeding and specifying the punishment to be inflicted upon the convict
b. : the punishment so imposed
serve out a sentence
3. archaic : maxim , saw
4.
a. : a word, clause, or phrase or a group of clauses or phrases forming a syntactic unit which expresses an assertion, a question, a command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action, that in writing usually begins with a capital letter and concludes with appropriate end punctuation, and that in speaking is distinguished by characteristic patterns of stress, pitch, and pauses
b. : a mathematical or logical statement (as an equation or a proposition) in words or symbols
5. : period 2b
II. transitive verb
( sen·tenced ; sen·tenc·ing )
Date: 1592
1. : to impose a sentence on
2. : to cause to suffer something
sentenced these most primitive cultures to extinction — E. W. Count