Blurred

How to spell blurred

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blurred

What does blurred mean?

1. adjectiveIndistinct or unclear in outline, as when something is out of focus or hard to make out.
2. verbMade something indistinct, smeared, or harder to see clearly.

Blurred in a sentence

• adjective

  Every photo from the old camera came out blurred and grainy.

• verb

  The heavy rain blurred the windscreen before she could find the wipers.

• adjective

  His blurred vision after the long shift made driving home risky.

• verb

  Tears blurred the words on the letter as she read it.

Where does blurred come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'blur' first appears in English in the late 1500s, and its exact origin is genuinely uncertain. It is widely thought to be related to the older word 'blear', meaning to dim or cloud the eyes with watery film, which goes back to a Germanic root for something hazy or smeared. Early uses of 'blur' described a smudge or smear of ink that made writing hard to read, and only later did it broaden to mean anything seen indistinctly. The form 'blurred' is simply the past tense and participle, and it gains its second 'r' from the standard English rule of doubling a final consonant after a short stressed vowel before adding '-ed'. That doubled 'r' is precisely the spelling trap, since the single-syllable sound gives no hint that two are needed.

How the word is built

• blur (smear, indistinct mark)
• -r- (doubled consonant)
• -ed (past tense/adjective suffix)