Bladder

How to spell bladder

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bladder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bladder mean?

1. nounThe muscular sac in the body that stores urine before it is passed.
2. nounA flexible bag or sac that can hold liquid or air, as in a ball, a water container, or certain plants and fish.

Bladder in a sentence

• The doctor scanned her bladder to check for any blockage.

• The old leather football had a rubber bladder inside it.

• Drinking a lot of coffee left him with a very full bladder.

• A fish controls its depth using a gas-filled bladder.

Where does bladder come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English blǣdre, meaning a blister, pimple, or sac, which in turn grew from the Proto-Germanic root blǣdrōn linked to the idea of blowing or swelling up. The same blowing image survives in related Germanic words such as Dutch blaar and German Blatter, and it ties bladder loosely to the family of words built on 'blow'. Because the organ swells as it fills, the name fits its function rather neatly. The word has been in continuous English use for well over a thousand years and never passed through Latin or French, which is why it keeps a plain, native spelling. The doubled d simply reflects the short, stressed vowel before it, the same pattern seen in ladder and adder.

How the word is built

• blad- (from Old English blǣdre: a blister or sac)
• -der (part of the original root, not a separate suffix)