season

SaySEE-zuhn/ˈsi.zn̩/UK/ˈsiː.zn̩//ˈsɪi.zən/

Pluralseasons

Verbseasons, seasoning, seasoned

12 meanings of season

Practice

1
nouncountable
A part of the year when a particular activity or event regularly takes place, or when a place is busiest, as in the holiday season, the cricket season, or the tourist season.
The holiday season brings crowds to downtown shops.
Football seasons bring fans together every year.
UsageUsually a word in front names it: the tourist season, the rainy season. Also high season and the off-season.
Similarperiod, time
Note
The Old French meaning, a time of sowing, lives on most closely here: a stretch of the year named for what happens in it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
An Old French ancestor of season meant a time of sowing. en.wiktionary.org
2
spring or summernouncountable
One of the four divisions of the year: spring, summer, fall, and winter.
The four seasons follow one another in a steady cycle.
Spring is the season when most plants begin to grow.
UsageUse in: in winter, in the spring. Season names usually take no capital letter: summer, autumn.
Note
In the plural it often stands for passing time itself, as when the lyric of Seasons in the Sun says the wine and the song, like the seasons, have all gone.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Seasons in the Sun contains the lyric described in the item. ub01.uni-tuebingen.de
3
TV episodesnounAustraliaCanadaUScountable
A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast at regular intervals, usually one batch per year.
Critics praised the third season for its bold storytelling.
Streaming platforms often release an entire season at once.
UsageUsually numbered: season 2, season 1, episode 11, the third season of a show.
Similarseries
4
add flavorverbtransitive
To add flavor to food using salt, herbs, or spices.
Chefs season the stew with fresh thyme and cracked pepper.
He seasoned the steak generously before grilling.
UsageUsually season food with something: season the soup with salt.
Similarflavor, spice
5
verbtransitive
To make a person or thing accustomed to particular conditions or work through experience, or to become mature, experienced, or adapted over time.
Tough campaigns season recruits faster than any training drill.
Difficult cases seasoned the young lawyer over the years.
UsageMost often met as the adjective seasoned: a seasoned traveler, a seasoned lawyer.
Similarharden, toughen, temper, mature
6
nouncountable
A period of time, often an indefinite one or one in someone's life marked by a particular feeling or situation.
He described his twenties as a season of doubt and searching.
The church encouraged her through a difficult season of grief.
UsageUsually a season of + noun: a season of grief. It can sound religious; period or time is plainer.
Similarperiod, time, phase, spell, stretch
Note
It reuses the older idea of a season as any span of time but turns it inward and makes it personal.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Season historically meant a period or duration of time, including in Middle English. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

7
verbtransitive
To make wood or another material dry and hard by letting its natural moisture escape, or (of wood) to become dry and hard in this way.
Coopers season the staves before assembling each barrel.
Workers seasoned the planks under cover to prevent cracking.
UsageOften passive or as an adjective: the wood is seasoned for a year; seasoned timber.
Similardry, cure, age
8
game update periodnouncountable
A fixed period in an online multiplayer game during which new content (themes, rules, or modes) becomes available, sometimes replacing earlier content.
Each season resets the competitive rankings for all players.
Developers teased the next season's storyline at the convention.
Note
Here the game itself runs on a calendar. A season is a fixed span during which new themes, rules or modes arrive, and what came before may be retired. Players speak of each season and the next season much as sports fans do, with rankings and storylines tied to the cycle.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Game seasons are set periods during which new content becomes available. help.ea.com
Earlier seasonal content may be retired. help.bungie.net
Player rankings can be tied to seasons. epicgames.com
Storylines can be tied to seasons. help.bungie.net
9
soften by mixingverbtransitive
To moderate, temper, or qualify something by mixing in an element of another kind.
The judge seasoned justice with mercy when sentencing the young offender.
Good leaders season their authority with patience and tact.
UsageUsually season one thing with another: justice seasoned with mercy.
Similartemper, leaven, moderate, soften
10
flavoringnounobsolete
Something that adds flavor or relish to food; a seasoning.
You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”
O! she is fallen Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, And salt too little which may season give To her foul-tainted flesh.
1598, William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”
Note
Shakespeare's noun for what salt and spice give. In Much Ado About Nothing, there is salt too little 'which may season give' to tainted flesh. Macbeth stretches it to sleep, 'the season of all natures,' meaning what gives every living thing its relish. As a noun this use is obsolete; the modern word is seasoning, and the flavoring sense survives in the cooking verb.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Shakespeare used season as a noun meaning something that gives relish or seasoning. en.wiktionary.org
The quoted wording occurs in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, spoken by Leonato in Act 4, scene 1. folgerdigitaltexts.org
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth calls sleep 'the season of all natures' in Act 3, scene 4. folger.edu
The Macbeth quotation exemplifies the figurative meaning of something that gives relish. en.wiktionary.org
11
verbobsolete
To impregnate something thoroughly, in either a literal or a figurative sense.
When the male hath once ſeaſoned the female, he neuer after toucheth her.
1589, Richard Hakluyt, The principall navigations
Note
An obsolete breeding verb that also served for the mind. A voyage account in Richard Hakluyt's collection (1589) and Philemon Holland's translation (1601) use it of animals: the male seasons the female, and bulls season the kine. The eighteenth-century writers use it figuratively, for a mind seasoned with philosophy, or 'seasoned and impregnated,' as Edmund Burton pairs the words in 1763. Today readers would hear the flavoring sense instead.
12
noun
The complete set of downloadable add-on content for a video game, available for purchase with a season pass.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of season apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–3, 5–11

From Middle English sesoun, from Old French seson ("time of sowing"), from Latin satiō ("act of sowing or planting"), ultimately from a root meaning "to sow, plant." It is related to Old English sāwan ("to sow") and sǣd ("seed").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

Season descends from Middle English sesoun, borrowed from Old French seson. en.wiktionary.org
The Old French ancestor had the meaning time of sowing. en.wiktionary.org
The word ultimately derives through Latin satiō, meaning sowing or planting. en.wiktionary.org
Latin satiō means sowing or planting. en.wiktionary.org
Its ultimate root means to sow or plant. en.wiktionary.org
Season is cognate with Old English sāwan, meaning to sow, and sǣd, meaning seed. en.wiktionary.org

Meaning 4

From French assaisonner.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

The verb season, meaning to flavour food, comes from French assaisonner. en.wiktionary.org