sentence

Main Entry:: ¹sen·tence
Pronunciation:: \ˈsen-t^ən(t)s, -t^ənz\
Function:: 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

1obsolete : opinion ; especially : a conclusion given on request or reached after deliberation2 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>3archaic : maxim , saw4 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 symbols5: period 2b

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