Calibrated

How to spell calibrated

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce calibrated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does calibrated mean?

1. verbAdjusted an instrument or measure so that its readings match a known standard.
2. adjectiveCarefully adjusted or measured so as to be accurate or precisely judged.

Calibrated in a sentence

• verb

  The technician calibrated the bathroom scale before the morning weigh-in.

• adjective

  The laboratory depends on a properly calibrated thermometer for reliable results.

• verb

  Engineers calibrated the temperature sensors to match the factory reference.

• adjective

  She gave a calibrated answer that gave nothing away.

Where does calibrated come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of 'calibre', the term for the internal diameter of a gun barrel or, more broadly, the measured size of something. English took 'calibre' from French in the late 1500s, and the French had it from the Italian 'calibro'; many scholars trace the chain further back to the Arabic 'qalib', meaning a mould or model used to shape an object. The verb 'calibrate' was then built on this noun in the nineteenth century, originally describing the careful checking of the bore of a tube or gun before its broader sense of adjusting any instrument to a known standard. 'Calibrated' is simply the past tense and participle of that verb, and it kept the spelling of its parent: the unstressed middle vowel (cal-i-brated) is the quiet trap, since the 'i' is barely heard yet must still be written. Knowing the root 'calibre' inside the word is the easiest way to remember that single 'l' and that 'i'.

How the word is built

• calibr- (from calibre: the bore or measured size of something)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle)