lesson

1 of 2

noun

les·​son ˈle-sᵊn 

1

: a passage from sacred writings read in a service of worship

2

a

: a piece of instruction

b

: a reading or exercise to be studied by a pupil

c

: a division of a course of instruction

3

a

: something learned by study or experience

his years of travel had taught him valuable lessons

b

: an instructive example

the lessons of history

c

: reprimand

lesson

2 of 2

verb

lessoned; lessoning ˈle-sə-niŋ 

ˈles-niŋ

transitive verb

1

: to give a lesson to : instruct

2

: lecture, rebuke

Synonyms

Noun

• assignment
• reading

Verb

• educate
• indoctrinate
• instruct
• school
• teach
• train
• tutor

Examples of lesson in a Sentence

Noun

You can't go out to play until you've finished your lessons.

The book is divided into 12 lessons.

She took piano lessons for years.

political leaders who have failed to learn the lessons of history

I've learned my lesson—I'll never do that again!

Let that be a lesson to you—if you don't take better care of your toys they'll get broken!

Verb

would tirelessly lesson the children in proper manners

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

However, one of the most basic lessons of long-term forecasting is to avoid over-interpreting short-term moves as evidence of long-term trends. —Michael Lynch, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024

The cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah holds lessons for both Israel and the United States. —Stuart E. Eizenstat, The Atlantic, 2 Dec. 2024

Verb

Many of those questions are focused on how CrowdStrike has adapted to prevent a similar outage, why only Windows systems were affected, and what lessons other IT vendors can learn from this, Daniel noted. —Sam Sabin, Axios, 24 Sep. 2024

Nearing 80-years-old and urged by his wife Grete (Lena Olin) to reduce some of his store of papers, Winton, who never told his family about his role in saving so many refugees, wonders what lessons the scrapbook documenting his work might offer to a wider public. —Alissa Simon, Variety, 11 Sep. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French leçon, from Late Latin lection-, lectio, from Latin, act of reading, from legere to read — more at legend

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1555, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing lesson

• object lesson
• teach (someone) a lesson

Kids Definition

lesson

noun

les·​son

ˈles-ᵊn

1

: a part of the Scripture read in a church service

2

a

: a reading or exercise assigned to be studied

b

: something learned by study or experience