Amused

How to spell amused

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce amused

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amused mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling or showing quiet entertainment or mild pleasure at something.
2. verbEntertained someone or kept them happily occupied (past tense of amuse).

Amused in a sentence

• adjective

  The children looked thoroughly amused by the clumsy magician.

• verb

  The comedian amused the office crowd for a solid hour.

• adjective

  She seemed amused rather than annoyed by the typo in the report.

• verb

  A stack of puzzles amused the kids during the long flight.

Where does amused come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Old French verb 'amuser', which meant 'to stop, to make someone stare or stand idle', built from the prefix 'a-' (toward) and 'muser' (to stare blankly or ponder). When English borrowed the word in the late 1400s it first carried this older sense of distracting or deceiving someone, keeping a person idle and gazing rather than acting. Over the following two centuries the meaning softened from 'to deceive or divert attention' into the friendlier modern idea of pleasantly entertaining or causing light enjoyment. The 'muse' inside it shares ground with the idea of musing or pondering, which is why the single 's' is pronounced like a 'z' rather than doubled; writers who expect a double 's' are the ones who trip on the spelling. The form 'amused' is simply the past tense and participle, with the regular '-ed' ending added once the silent final 'e' of 'amuse' is absorbed.

How the word is built

• a- (from Old French a-, to/toward)
• muse (to stare, ponder, divert)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)