Word.ws English Dictionary

summons

/ˈsʌ.mənz/

summons noun: a call to do something, especially to come. Also the plural of summon.

Noun

summons (plural summonses)

  1. A call to do something, especially to come.
    • He sent to summon the seditious, and to offer pardon[…]; but neither summons nor pardon was any thing regarded.1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI
    • this summons […] unfit either to dispute or disobey1661, John Fell, The Life of the Most Learned, Reverend and Pious Dr. H. Hammond
  2. A notice summoning someone to appear in court, as a defendant, juror or witness.
    • Four summonses were brought recently on behalf of St. Pancras Borough Council against the British Transport Commission in respect of the emission of smoke by locomotives standing at Camden Motive Power Depot. (The summonses were dismissed)1955 December, “Emission of Smoke by Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 812
    Synonyms:
    subpoena
  3. A demand for surrender.

Verb

summons (third-person singular simple present summonses, present participle summonsing, simple past and past participle summonsed)

  1. (transitive) To serve someone with a summons.
    • It proposes that those held in the prototype Selfridges cells be kept for a maximum of four hours to have their identity confirmed and be charged, summonsed or given a fine.2007 March 15, The Guardian, page 1
    Synonyms:
    convene

Also used as

summons is also the plural of summon.

summons is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of summon.

summons meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

summons in Hindi

notice summoning someone to appear in court
सम्मन samman

summons in Tamil

notice summoning someone to appear in court
சம்மன் cammaṉ

summons in Marathi

समन्स

summons in Bengali

notice summoning someone to appear in court
সমন śomon
More languagesFewer languages
summons in Telugu
సమన్లు
summons in Malayalam
സമൻസ്
summons in Kannada
ಸಮನ್ಸ್, ಸಮನ್ಸ್ಗಳು
summons in Punjabi
ਸੰਮਨ
summons in Gujarati
સમન્સ
summons in Nepali
सम्मन, समन्स
summons in Arabic
اِسْتِدْعَاء istidʕāʔ
summons in Malay
saman
summons in Indonesian
surat panggilan, surat panggilan sidang, surat pemanggilan sidang
summons in Thai
หมายเรียก mǎai-rîiak

Examples of summons in a sentence

  • I've received a summons for jury duty. It says I serve one day or one trial.
  • He excurred to the tintinnabular summons alacritously.
  • The writ of summons was endorsed with the nature of a claim, the cause thereof, and of the relief sought in the action.

All 25 example sentences with summons

Synonyms of summons

All synonyms of summons

Forms of summons

Noun
pluralsummonses
Verb
third-person singular presentsummonses
present participlesummonsing
past participlesummonsed
pastsummonsed

Plural of summons: summonses

Origin of summons

From Middle English somouns (“order or command to do something”), borrowed from Old French sumunce (modern French semonce), from Vulgar Latin *summonsa, a noun use of the feminine past participle of summoneō, summonēre (“to summon”).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from summons

Phrases with summons

Questions about summons

What does summons mean?
Summons means a call to do something, especially to come.
What is summons in Hindi?
Summons in Hindi is सम्मन (samman). See Summons meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is summons?
Summons can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce summons?
Summons is pronounced /ˈsʌ.mənz/.
What is the plural of summons?
The plural of summons is summonses.

Words near summons in the dictionary

  1. summoning
  2. summoning sickness
  3. summoning up
  4. summoningly
  5. summonings
  6. summons
  7. summons up
  8. summonsed
  9. summonsee
  10. summonsees
  11. summonser

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: summons (page history and authors); summons (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); summons (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); summons (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); summons (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); summons (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); summons (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); summons (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-summons.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-summons.wav.

Cite this entry: “summons.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/summons. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.