Lesson

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /ˈlÉ›s(É™)n/
• Rhymes: -É›sÉ™n

Origin

From Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō ("a reading"), from legō ("I read, I gather").

Full definition of lesson

Noun

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.
• Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)She would give her a lesson for walking so late.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 8, 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

• object lesson
• private lessons

Related terms

• lectern
• lection
• lecture

Verb

1. To give a lesson to; to teach.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vi:her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee
  Made her companion, and her lessoned
  In all the lore of loue, and goodly womanhead.
• ByronTo rest the weary, and to soothe the sad,
  Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.

Anagrams

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