Accredited

How to spell accredited

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce accredited

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accredited mean?

1. adjectiveOfficially recognised or authorised as meeting a required standard.
2. verbPast tense of accredit: officially recognised or gave authority to.

Accredited in a sentence

• adjective

  The course is taught at a fully accredited university.

• verb

  The board accredited the new training programme last spring.

• adjective

  Only an accredited inspector can sign off the safety report.

• verb

  The agency accredited her as a foreign correspondent before the summit.

Where does accredited come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb credere, meaning 'to believe' or 'to trust', which is also the source of everyday words like credit, credible, and creed. From credere came the noun creditum, a thing entrusted, and the broader idea of giving someone trust or standing. French built the verb accréditer, literally 'to give credit or trust to', and English borrowed it in the early 1600s to describe sending an envoy with credentials that vouched for them. From that diplomatic sense the meaning widened to any official recognition that a person or institution meets a required standard. The doubled c comes from the Latin prefix ad- (meaning 'to') assimilating before the c of cred, which is exactly the spot writers tend to slip when they leave out one of the two c's.

How the word is built

• ac- (to, from Latin ad-)
• cred (believe, trust)
• -it (as in credit)
• -ed (adjective/past-participle suffix)