Definition of "sentence" in English

noun

1. (dated) The decision or judgement of a jury or court; a verdict.

   • The court returned a sentence of guilt in the first charge, but innocence in the second.

2. The judicial order for a punishment to be imposed on a person convicted of a crime.

   • The judge declared a sentence of death by hanging for the infamous child rapist.

3. A punishment imposed on a person convicted of a crime.

4. (obsolete) A saying, especially from a great person; a maxim, an apophthegm.

5. (grammar) A grammatically complete series of words consisting of a subject and predicate, even if one or the other is implied. In modern writing, when using e.g. the Latin, Greek or Cyrillic alphabets, typically beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop or other punctuation.

   • Near-synonym: clause
   • The children were made to construct sentences consisting of nouns and verbs from the list on the chalkboard.

6. (logic) A formula with no free variables.

7. (computing theory) Any of the set of strings that can be generated by a given formal grammar.

8. (obsolete) Sense; meaning; significance.

9. (obsolete) One's opinion; manner of thinking.

10. (archaic) A pronounced opinion or judgment on a given question.

verb

1. (transitive) To declare a sentence on a convicted person; to condemn to punishment.

   • The judge sentenced the embezzler to ten years in prison, along with a hefty fine.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I, The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

2. (especially law or poetic) To decree, announce, or pass as a sentence.

   • […] upholding Idaho statute mandating that court "shall" sentence death upon finding an aggravating circumstance "unless" it finds outweighing mitigating circumstances because satisfies individualized sentencing requirement […]

3. (obsolete) To utter sententiously.