Addressed

How to spell addressed

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce addressed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does addressed mean?

1. verbDirected spoken or written words to a particular person or audience.

Addressed in a sentence

• The chief executive addressed the staff about the merger this morning.

• She addressed the envelope carefully before posting the cheque.

Where does addressed come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of the verb 'address', which English took from the Old French verb 'adresser', meaning 'to set right, to direct, or to aim at'. That French word was built from the Latin prefix 'ad-', meaning 'to' or 'toward', joined to a verb descended from Latin 'directus', the past participle of 'dirigere', 'to make straight or direct'. So at its heart the word carries the idea of pointing something straight at a target, whether that target is a person, a letter, or a problem. It entered English in the late 1300s, first with the sense of preparing or directing, and the meanings of speaking directly to someone and of writing a destination on a letter grew naturally from that. The spelling trap is the result of the prefix 'ad-' colliding with a root that begins with a soft sound, leaving the doubled letters that catch many writers: one 'd' belongs to the prefix and one to the root, and the '-ss-' belongs to the French 'dresser'.

How the word is built

• ad- (to, toward)
• dress (from Latin directus 'made straight, directed')
• -ed (past tense suffix)