Betrayed

How to spell betrayed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce betrayed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does betrayed mean?

1. verbActed disloyally toward someone who placed trust in you, or broke a promise or duty.
2. verbUnintentionally revealed something hidden, such as a feeling or secret.

Betrayed in a sentence

• He betrayed his closest colleague by leaking the confidential report.

• His trembling hands betrayed how nervous he was before the interview.

• The informant betrayed his own gang to the police for a reduced sentence.

• A faint accent betrayed her northern upbringing.

Where does betrayed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'betray', which entered Middle English as 'betrayen', combining the intensifying prefix 'be-' with the Old French verb 'traïr', meaning 'to deceive' or 'to hand over to an enemy'. That French verb descended from the Latin 'tradere', literally 'to give across' or 'to hand over', formed from 'trans' (across) and 'dare' (to give). The grim shift from neutral 'handing over' to treacherous 'handing over to the enemy' is why the same Latin root gave us both 'traitor' and the entirely respectable word 'tradition', which is simply something handed down. The spelling keeps the French-derived 'tray' element rather than the Latin 'tra', and the silent twist for spellers is mostly the single 't' followed by 'r' and the long 'ay' vowel.

How the word is built

• be- (intensive prefix)
• tray (from Latin tradere: to hand over)
• -ed (past tense)