Alerted

How to spell alerted

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce alerted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does alerted mean?

1. verbWarned someone of a danger, problem, or important development so they could act.

Alerted in a sentence

• A neighbour alerted the family to the smell of gas.

• The bank alerted her to a suspicious charge on the account.

Where does alerted come from?

Language of origin: Italian

This is the past tense of the verb 'alert', which traces back to the Italian military phrase all'erta, literally meaning 'to the watch' or 'on the lookout', where erta named a steep slope or watchtower from which a sentry kept guard. French borrowed it as alerte, and English picked it up in the seventeenth century, first as the cry and stance of a soldier on standby. Over time the noun and adjective sense of being watchful broadened into a verb meaning to warn someone or rouse them to readiness. The spelling 'alerted' simply adds the regular -ed ending; the trap for adult writers is remembering it has a single 'l' and a single 't', not the doubled consonants people sometimes guess. The original idea of a guard staring out from a high vantage point still lives quietly inside every modern alert.

How the word is built

• alert (from Italian all'erta: on the watch)
• -ed (past tense suffix)