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Lessen vs Lesson - What's the difference?

lessen | lesson |

As verbs the difference between lessen and lesson

is that lessen is to make less; to diminish; to reduce while lesson is to give a lesson to; to teach.

As a noun lesson is

a section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.

lessen

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make less; to diminish; to reduce.
  • * Calamy
    • Charity shall lessen his punishment.
  • * Atterbury
    • St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 16 , author=Denis Campbell , title=Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.}}
  • To become less.

    • Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs ----

    lesson

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
  • A learning task assigned to a student; homework.
  • Something learned or to be learned.
  • Something that serves as a warning or encouragement.
  • A section of the Bible or other religious text read as part of a divine service.
  • A severe lecture; reproof; rebuke; warning.
  • * Sir (Philip Sidney) (1554-1586)
    • She would give her a lesson for walking so late.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • (music) An exercise; a composition serving an educational purpose; a study.

    • Synonyms

    * (l) * (religious reading) lection

    Derived terms

    * object lesson * private lessons

    Related terms

    * lectern * lection * lecture

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To give a lesson to; to teach.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.vi:
    • her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee / Made her companion, and her lessoned / In all the lore of loue, and goodly womanhead.
  • * Byron
    • To rest the weary, and to soothe the sad, / Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.

    See also

    * (wikipedia "lesson") *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words