Bounded

How to spell bounded

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bounded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bounded mean?

1. verbMoved forward with large springing leaps (past tense of bound).
2. verbFormed the boundary of an area; enclosed or bordered (past tense of bound).
3. adjectiveHaving a fixed limit or boundary, especially in mathematics or logic.

Bounded in a sentence

• verb

  The excited dog bounded across the garden to greet us.

• verb

  The estate was bounded on three sides by a tall stone wall.

• adjective

  The function stays bounded between zero and one across the whole range.

• verb

  She bounded up the stairs when she heard the good news.

• verb

  Their farmland was bounded to the north by a winding river.

• adjective

  Engineers prefer a bounded error margin they can predict and control.

Where does bounded come from?

Language of origin: French

This single spelling actually carries two different histories that collapsed into one form. The leaping sense traces to the Old French bondir, which once meant 'to resound or echo' and only later came to mean 'to spring or rebound', itself rooted in a Latin word for a booming noise. The boundary sense comes from a separate Old French word, bonde or bodne, meaning a marker or limit set on land, which gave English the noun 'bound' for an edge or border in the 1200s. By the time the verb forms settled, both meanings took the regular past-tense ending -ed, producing the identical written word 'bounded'. Because the root already ends in the letter d, learners often hesitate over whether to write one d or two, but the rule is simply bound plus -ed. The mathematical and geographical uses both grow directly from the limit sense, where something is held inside a fixed edge.

How the word is built

• bound (from Old French bondir: to leap, and bonde: a limit)
• -ed (past tense / participle suffix)