Barred

How to spell barred

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce barred

What does barred mean?

1. verbPrevented or formally forbidden someone from entering a place or taking part in something.
2. verbBlocked or obstructed a way or passage, often physically.
3. adjectiveMarked with bars or stripes of colour.

Barred in a sentence

• verb

  The rowdy customer was barred from the pub for a month.

• verb

  Fallen branches barred the only road out of the valley.

• adjective

  The barred owl has distinctive horizontal markings across its chest.

• verb

  The committee barred him from voting on his own proposal.

• verb

  A security gate barred the entrance to the loading bay.

• adjective

  She chose a barred pattern of light and dark stripes for the curtains.

Where does barred come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'bar', which came into English in the 1100s from the Old French 'barrer', meaning 'to shut in or block with a bar'. That verb was built on the noun 'barre', a wooden or metal rod used to fasten a gate or door, whose ultimate source is the Late Latin 'barra' for a bar or barrier. From the literal idea of dropping a physical bar across an opening, the sense widened to any kind of blocking or forbidding, so that a person could be 'barred' from a place or an activity. The same root gives us 'barrier', 'barricade' and 'embargo', all sharing the notion of something set across a path. The spelling trap is the doubled r: because 'bar' ends in a single vowel plus consonant, the consonant doubles before '-ed', giving 'barred' rather than 'bared'.

How the word is built

• bar (rod, barrier)
• doubled r
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)

Words that sound like barred

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• bard: A poet, especially one who composes and recites verse celebrating people or events.