Add

How to spell add

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce add

What does add mean?

1. verbTo join one thing to another so as to increase a number, amount, or group.
2. verbTo say something further, as an extra remark beyond what has already been stated.

Add in a sentence

• Please add the two columns of figures before you submit the report.

• She paused, then went on to add that the deadline had moved.

• The recipe asks you to add a pinch of salt to the sauce.

• He wanted to add a few words of thanks at the end of the meeting.

Where does add come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin addere, meaning 'to put to' or 'to give to'. That verb was built from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', joined to dare, meaning 'to give', so the literal sense was something like 'to give toward' a total. English took it up in the late 1300s, first in the mathematical sense of combining quantities into a sum, and the meaning soon broadened to joining anything onto something else, including extra words in speech. The same dare root for 'give' survives in a whole family of English words such as 'date', 'donate', and 'tradition'. The double 'd' is simply the assimilation of the d in ad- meeting the d in dare, which is why it ended up short and doubled rather than spelled with a single consonant.

How the word is built

• add (from Latin addere: to put to, give to) treated as a single root in English

Words that sound like add

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• ad: A short notice or message designed to promote a product, service, or event.