Acknowledged

How to spell acknowledged

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce acknowledged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does acknowledged mean?

1. verbPast tense of acknowledge: admitted the truth or existence of something, or formally confirmed receipt of it.
2. adjectiveGenerally accepted or recognised as such by most people.

Acknowledged in a sentence

• verb

  The manager acknowledged that the deadline had been missed.

• adjective

  She is an acknowledged expert on tax law.

• verb

  She acknowledged the email and promised a full reply by Friday.

• adjective

  The firm is the acknowledged leader in its market.

Where does acknowledged come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb cnawan, meaning 'to know', the same root that gives us 'know' and 'knowledge'. In Middle English the verb 'knowlechen' meant 'to confess or admit something', and writers attached an intensifying prefix to form 'aknowleche', later 'acknowledge', recorded from around the 1400s. The spelling fuses three familiar pieces: the little 'ac', the whole word 'knowledge' (complete with its silent 'k' and its tricky 'dge'), and the ending '-d'. The sense moved from simply 'to recognise as true' toward today's meanings of admitting a fact and formally confirming receipt. The biggest spelling trap is invisible: the silent 'k' after the 'c' and the '-dged' cluster at the end, both inherited intact from that older 'knowledge' core.

How the word is built

• ac- (intensive prefix, from Old English a-)
• knowledge (cnawan, to know)
• -d (past tense/participle ending)