Aged

How to spell aged

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce aged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aged mean?

1. verbGrew older over time, or was deliberately matured over a period.
2. adjectiveHaving lived a long time; very old.

Aged in a sentence

• verb

  The whisky aged in oak barrels for twelve years.

• adjective

  The charity provides home visits for the aged and the infirm.

• verb

  The cheese was carefully aged in a cool cellar.

• adjective

  An aged gentleman shuffled slowly across the square.

Where does aged come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows out of the noun age, which English took from Old French aage in the 1200s, itself descended from the Latin aetas, meaning a period or length of life, ultimately from aevum, 'a lifetime or age'. Once age settled into English as a noun, speakers added the native -ed ending to make both a past-tense verb (something that has grown older) and an adjective (carrying years, or matured deliberately). The single root explains the spelling: there is no extra letter to remember, just age plus -ed, even though the two-syllable adjective sounds as if it might be spelled differently. The same aevum and aetas family lies behind 'eternal' and 'longevity', a reminder that the idea of stretched-out time runs right through the word. The two distinct pronunciations, one syllable for the verb and matured sense and two syllables for the very-old sense, both keep this identical spelling.

How the word is built

• age (noun: length of life)
• -ed (suffix forming past tense and adjective)