Buried

How to spell buried

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce buried

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does buried mean?

1. verbPlaced something in the ground and covered it over, or hid it from view.

Buried in a sentence

• The dog buried a bone at the bottom of the garden.

• The old treasure was buried beneath the cellar floor.

Where does buried come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'bury', which descends from the Old English byrgan, meaning to hide, to conceal, or to raise a protective mound over something. That word came from a Germanic root tied to the idea of shelter and protection, and it is a close relative of 'borough' and 'burrow', which share the same notion of an enclosed, sheltered place. Originally the sense was as much about hiding and safeguarding as about funeral burial, and only later did the meaning settle firmly on placing the dead in the ground. The spelling trap lives entirely in the ending: 'bury' is pronounced as though it were spelled 'berry', yet it keeps its u, and when the past tense is formed the y turns to i, giving 'buried' rather than 'buryed'. Remembering that 'bury' and 'burrow' both begin with bur- helps fix that stubborn u in place.

How the word is built

• bury (from Old English byrgan: to conceal, cover with earth)
• -ied (past tense, with y changed to i)