suggestion
Pluralsuggestions
- 1An idea or plan put forward for someone to consider.
The committee adopted my suggestion for reorganizing the weekly schedule.
He offered several suggestions for improving the draft report.
Similarproposal, recommendation, idea, proposition
Note
Underneath it is a picture of lifting: Latin suggerō joins sub- "from below, up" to gerō "to bring", so a suggestion is an idea brought up for others to consider. You make a suggestion rather than give one. The thing proposed follows for, usually with an -ing verb: a suggestion for fixing this. Calling a rule more of a suggestion than an order is the wry way of saying people ignore it.
- 2The act of putting an idea forward for others to consider.
The new policy was adopted at the suggestion of the incoming director.
Change came slowly, mostly through quiet suggestion rather than open demand.
Similarrecommendation, prompting
Note
Without an article, the word names a method rather than any one idea, as in suggestion often works better than explicit demand. Here it is a mass noun that takes no plural, and it stands in contrast to pressure and command. When a single proposal is meant, English switches to the countable "idea put forward" and adds a or the.
- 3Something implied that the mind is liable to accept as fact.
The mere suggestion that the bridge was unsafe kept drivers away for weeks.
Advertisers rely on subtle suggestions that shape what shoppers believe about a brand.
Similarhint, implication, insinuation, intimation
Note
Psychology uses the word for an idea that gets in without being argued for. Nobody has to state it outright. The mind picks it up and treats it as settled, as when someone picks up the suggestion that you like peanuts. It typically takes a that-clause carrying the implied belief, and its deliberate, controlled form is hypnotic suggestion.
- 4In hypnosis, the act of influencing a hypnotized person through words or gestures so they accept a belief or impulse; also the idea conveyed this way.
Under hypnotic suggestion, the patient recalled details he thought he had forgotten.
The stage performer used suggestion to make his volunteers believe they were freezing cold.
Note
Hypnotism uses the word for both a technique and its product. Without an article it names the method of steering a subject by words or gestures. With one, it names the particular belief or impulse that was planted. That double life is why it works both as a mass noun and with a plural. It is the deliberate, controlled cousin of the psychologist's implied idea.
- 5In law, information, insinuation, or speculation, rather than sworn testimony and evidence.
Counsel dismissed the rumor as mere suggestion, unsupported by any sworn statement.
The judge warned the jury to disregard suggestions that had never been entered as evidence.
Similarinsinuation, speculation, innuendo
Note
The courtroom draws a hard line between suggestion and evidence. In law the word gathers information, insinuation and speculation into one group, and what unites them is that none of it was given under oath. In legal argument it is therefore a dismissive label. Calling something a suggestion denies it the weight of sworn testimony, unlike the everyday sense of a helpful idea.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of suggestion apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It came into Middle English through Anglo-Norman (suggestioun, sugestiun) from Latin suggestiō, from the verb suggerō ('to suggest'), which combines sub- ('from below, up') with gerō ('to bring'). It is equivalent to suggest + -ion.