Catches

How to spell catches

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce catches

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does catches mean?

1. verbSeizes, grasps, or captures something in motion (third-person singular).
2. nounMore than one fastening device, or more than one hidden drawback (plural noun).

Catches in a sentence

• verb

  The goalkeeper usually catches the ball cleanly under pressure.

• noun

  The old window has two rusty catches that no longer close properly.

• verb

  She always catches her train with only a minute to spare.

• noun

  The contract looked simple, but it hid several expensive catches.

Where does catches come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the inflected form of 'catch', a verb English picked up in the early 1200s from Anglo-Norman French 'cachier', meaning 'to chase or hunt'. That French word descended from Vulgar Latin 'captiare', a frequentative built on the Latin 'capere', meaning 'to take or seize', so the original idea was repeated grabbing or pursuing. The same Latin 'capere' root sits behind a whole family of English words, including 'capture', 'captive' and 'chase', the last of which is essentially a doublet of 'catch' that travelled through a different French dialect. The spelling adds '-es' rather than a plain '-s' because the base word ends in the 'ch' sound, which English pads with an extra 'e' for pronunciation, exactly as it does in 'matches' and 'watches'. That predictable '-es' pattern is why the word, despite the awkward consonant cluster, rarely trips up adult writers.

How the word is built

• catch (to seize or grasp)
• -es (third-person singular verb ending / plural noun ending)