summon
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to officially order someone to come to a place, especially a court of law.
v.to command someone to appear in a specific location, typically for a legal or official purpose. Transitive; requires a direct object.
Simple“The judge decided to summon the witness to testify in court next week.”
In context“The committee exercised its legal authority to summon the chief executive for questioning regarding the company's recent financial discrepancies.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to find the courage, energy, or strength you need to do something.
v.to rouse or muster a particular quality or internal resource, such as courage or energy, from within oneself.
Simple“She had to summon all her courage to tell her boss that she was quitting.”
In context“He struggled to summon the necessary concentration to finish the report after working for twelve hours without a break.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
v.to call a group of people together for a meeting.
v.to convene or convoke a formal assembly or meeting.
Simple“The president decided to summon a special meeting of the council.”
In context“The monarch summoned the parliament to address the urgent matter of the border dispute.”
- 04 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to make a spirit or creature appear using magic.
v.to call upon a supernatural being or resource through magical means.
Simple“In the story, the wizard used an old book to summon a dragon.”
In context“The ritual was designed to summon ancestral spirits to provide guidance for the tribe's future.”
- 05 C1 Advanced
n.a ticket or fine for a small crime, like parking in the wrong place.
n.a notice of a legal infringement or the resulting monetary penalty, particularly for traffic violations.
Simple“He got a summon for speeding on his way to work this morning.”
In context“The driver was frustrated to find a summon on his windshield after leaving his car in a restricted zone for only five minutes.”
UsageCommonly used as a noun in Malaysian and Singaporean English where other dialects would use 'fine' or 'ticket'.
Teacher's tipThis noun usage is highly regional; in standard British or American English, 'summons' is the standard noun form for a legal order.
“Baptista Júnior writes that he was not summoned to those meetings and only learned about them through the press.”
“Most journalists we spoke to said they had been summoned or questioned by the Taliban's intelligence organisation, Estikhbaraat.”
From Anglo-Norman somoundre, from Old French sumundre, from Latin summonēre, itself from sub + monēre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European monéyeti, causative from men- (“to think”). Compare typologically from the same PIE root mention, Russian помина́ть (pominátʹ), упомина́ть (upominátʹ) (developed less further, keeping strong relation with по́мнить (pómnitʹ)), also compare помина́й как зва́ли (pomináj kak zváli) (<+ звать (zvatʹ)).
Borrowed from Malay saman (“fine, financial penalty”), which is itself borrowed from English summons (“notice summoning someone to appear in court”). This sense re-emerged in English as summon likely due to the erroneous belief that the original singular English word summons is plural. Doublet of summons and saman.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.