Abducted

How to spell abducted

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce abducted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does abducted mean?

1. verbTook someone away illegally and by force.

Abducted in a sentence

• The report claimed that armed men had abducted the diplomat from his car.

• In the novel, the heiress is abducted and held for ransom.

Where does abducted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word goes back to the Latin verb abducere, meaning 'to lead away' or 'to carry off', formed from the prefix ab- 'away from' and the verb ducere 'to lead'. That same ducere root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'conduct' (to lead together), 'produce' (to lead forth) and 'duct' (a channel that leads something along). English adopted 'abduct' in the seventeenth century, at first in an anatomical sense describing muscles that draw a limb away from the body, before the more dramatic everyday meaning of seizing and carrying a person off by force took hold. The past form simply adds -ed, and the spelling stays faithful to the Latin duct, which is why the silent flow from 'ab' straight into 'duct' is worth fixing in the mind.

How the word is built

• ab- (away)
• duct (from Latin ducere, to lead)
• -ed (past tense suffix)