Armed

How to spell armed

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce armed

What does armed mean?

1. adjectiveCarrying or equipped with weapons.
2. verbPast tense of 'arm': supplied with weapons, or activated a device ready to operate.

Armed in a sentence

• adjective

  The bank was robbed by an armed gang in broad daylight.

• verb

  She armed the alarm before locking the front door for the night.

• adjective

  Armed officers were posted at every entrance to the airport.

• verb

  The rebels armed themselves with whatever they could find.

Where does armed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin noun arma, meaning 'weapons' or 'tools of war', which entered English through Old French armer, 'to equip with weapons'. By the 1200s English had the verb 'arm', meaning to fit out with weapons or armour, and 'armed' is simply its past participle and adjective form. The same Latin root sits inside a whole family of related words, including 'army', 'armour', 'armada', and even 'alarm', which began as the Italian phrase all'arme, literally 'to the weapons'. The plural shape of arma is also why the parts of a coat of arms are called 'arms'. The spelling is refreshingly regular: the everyday body-part 'arm' and the weapons word are spelled identically, so the only thing to remember is the plain -ed ending.

How the word is built

• arm (root: weapon, from Latin arma)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)