Averted

How to spell averted

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce averted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does averted mean?

1. verbPrevented something harmful or dangerous from happening.
2. verbTurned the eyes or face away from something.

Averted in a sentence

• Quick thinking by the engineer averted a complete system failure.

• She averted her gaze when the surgeon described the injury.

• The negotiators averted a strike by agreeing to better pay.

• He averted his eyes from the bright welding flash.

Where does averted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'avert', which English took from the Latin verb avertere, meaning 'to turn away'. That verb was built from the prefix ab-, meaning 'away' or 'from', and the root vertere, meaning 'to turn'. English adopted it through Old French in the fifteenth century, originally in the literal sense of turning something aside and soon in the figurative sense of warding off or preventing a threat. The same vertere root runs through a whole family of English words, including 'convert', 'reverse', 'divert' and 'introvert', so spotting the 'vert' core helps fix the spelling. Remember that the prefix is a single 'a' (from ab- losing its 'b' before a consonant), which is why the word is 'averted' and not 'adverted'.

How the word is built

• a- (from Latin ab: away, from)
• vert (turn)
• -ed (past tense suffix)