lesson
Syllables: les·son/ˈlɛs.ən/
lesson verb: to instruct to teach.
Verb (1)
lesson (third-person singular simple present lessons, present participle lessoning, simple past and past participle lessoned)
- To instruct to teach.
- 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!1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 107
Noun
lesson (plural lessons)
- 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.
- A learning task assigned to a student; homework.
- Something learned or to be learned.
- Nature has many lessons to teach to us.
- Something that serves as a warning or encouragement.
- I hope this accident taught you a lesson!
- The accident was a good lesson to me.
- A section of the Bible or other religious text read as part of a divine service.
- Here endeth the first lesson.
- Synonyms:
- lection
- A severe lecture; reproof; rebuke; warning.
- She would give her a lesson for walking so late.a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...
- 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...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
- An exercise; a composition serving an educational purpose; a study.
Verb (2)
lesson (third-person singular simple present lessons, present participle lessoning, simple past and past participle lessoned)
- To give a lesson to; to teach.
- her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee
Made her companion, and her lessoned
In all the lore of loue, and goodly womanhead.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC - To rest the weary, and to soothe the sad,
Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC...
- her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee
lesson meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
lesson in Hindi
- section of learning or teaching
- पाठ pāṭh, सबक़ sabaq
- learning task assigned to a student
- पाठ pāṭh
lesson in Tamil
- section of learning or teaching
- பாடம் pāṭam
- learning task assigned to a student
- பாடம் pāṭam
- something learned
- பாடம் pāṭam
- something that serves as a warning or encouragement
- பாடம் pāṭam
lesson in Marathi
- section of learning or teaching
- धडा dhaḍā
lesson in Urdu
- section of learning or teaching
- دَرْس dars, سَبَق sabaq
More languagesFewer languages
- lesson in Bengali
- শিক্ষা śikkha, পাঠ paṭh, সবক sôbôk, দরস dôrôs
- lesson in Telugu
- పాఠం pāṭhaṁ
- lesson in Malayalam
- പാഠം pāṭhaṁ, അദ്ധ്യായം addhyāyaṁ, പഠിപ്പിക്കുക paṭhippikkuka
- lesson in Kannada
- ಪಾಠ, ಪಾಠದ ವಿಷಯ, ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ, ಪಾಠದ ಸಮಯ
- lesson in Punjabi
- ਸਬਕ sabak, ਪਾਠ pāṭh
- lesson in Gujarati
- લેસન lesan
- lesson in Odia
- କମାଇବା kamāibā, କାଟିବା kāṭibā
- lesson in Sanskrit
- पाठ pāṭha
- lesson in Sinhala
- පාඩම pāḍama
- lesson in Nepali
- पाठ pāṭh, शिक्षा śikṣā
- lesson in Pashto
- درس dars, لوست lwəst, سبق sabaq
- lesson in Arabic
- دَرْس dars, حِصَّة ḥiṣṣa, عِبْرَة ʕibra
- lesson in Malay
- pengajaran, pelajaran
- lesson in Indonesian
- pelajaran
- lesson in Persian
- آموزه āmuze, پند pand, آموزانیدن āmuzānidan
- lesson in Thai
- บทเรียน bòt-riian
- lesson in Vietnamese
- bài, bài học
- lesson in Myanmar
- သင်ခန်းစာ sanghkan:ca
Examples of lesson in a sentence
- The abbreviated lesson only took fifteen minutes as opposed to an hour and a half.
- If we fail to absorb the lessons of history, we are doomed to repeat them.
- I rushed to get to class on time, but the lesson had already begun.
Synonyms of lesson
Forms of lesson
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | lessons |
| present participle | lessoning |
| past participle | lessoned |
| past | lessoned |
| Noun | |
| plural | lessons |
Origin of lesson
From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“to read; to gather”). Doublet of lection.
Words formed from lesson
Phrases with lesson
Words that rhyme with lesson
Questions about lesson
- What does lesson mean?
- Lesson means to instruct to teach.
- What is lesson in Hindi?
- Lesson in Hindi is पाठ (pāṭh), सबक़ (sabaq). See Lesson meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lesson?
- Lesson can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce lesson?
- Lesson is pronounced /ˈlɛs.ən/.
- What is the past tense of lesson?
- The past tense of lesson is lessoned.
Words near lesson in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lesson (page history and authors); lesson (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪਾਠ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); લેસન (Gujarati) (page history and authors); କମାଇବା (Odia) (page history and authors); පාඩම (Sinhala) (page history and authors); पाठ (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-lesson.ogg, en-us-lesson.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lesson.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lesson. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.