Cast

How to spell cast

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cast

What does cast mean?

1. verbTo throw something with force or to direct it outward.
2. nounThe group of actors performing in a play, film, or television show.
3. nounA rigid moulded covering used to hold a broken bone in place while it heals.
4. nounAn object formed by pouring molten material into a mould and letting it set.

Cast in a sentence

• verb

  The angler decided to cast his line into the deeper water.

• noun

  The entire cast gathered on stage for the final bow.

• noun

  The doctor fitted a plaster cast around her fractured wrist.

• noun

  The foundry produced a bronze cast of the original sculpture.

• verb

  The tall building will cast a long shadow over the courtyard by afternoon.

• noun

  The director introduced the cast to the press before opening night.

Where does cast come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Cast comes from the Old Norse verb kasta, meaning simply 'to throw' or 'to fling', which Viking settlers brought into northern England during the early Middle Ages. By around the 1200s it had largely displaced the native Old English weorpan for the everyday sense of throwing, and from that core idea English grew a remarkable spread of meanings. Because metalworkers 'throw' molten metal into a mould, cast came to describe the act of founding objects, giving us 'cast iron'; because a director 'throws' actors into their roles, it came to mean assigning parts and then the whole company of performers. The same root underlies 'broadcast' (originally scattering seed by throwing it widely) and the modern medical 'cast' that is moulded around a broken limb. The spelling stayed short and blunt, true to its plain Norse origin, which is why the only real trap is its homophone caste, a quite separate word from Latin and Portuguese roots for social class.

How the word is built

• cast (from Old Norse kasta: to throw); single root, no affixes

Words that sound like cast

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• caste: A hereditary social class, especially within the traditional Hindu system of rigidly separated ranks.