Centred

How to spell centred

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce centred

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does centred mean?

1. verbPast tense of centre: placed something at or moved it towards the middle.
2. verbPast tense of centre: had something as its main focus or basis.
3. adjectiveEmotionally balanced, calm and grounded.

Centred in a sentence

• verb

  The designer centred the logo on the page before printing.

• verb

  The meeting centred on next year's budget cuts.

• adjective

  After the morning walk she felt calm and centred.

• verb

  She centred the photograph carefully within its frame.

• verb

  Their argument centred around who would pay the deposit.

• adjective

  A centred leader stays composed when the team is under pressure.

Where does centred come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the British and Canadian spelling of the past tense of 'centre', a word that traces back to the Latin centrum, meaning the fixed point of a pair of compasses and so the exact middle of a circle. The Romans in turn borrowed it from the Greek kentron, which literally meant a sharp point or a goad for driving cattle, the very spike a compass leg stands on while a circle is drawn. English took the word in through Old French 'centre' during the 1300s, keeping the French -re ending rather than reshaping it to -er. That preserved spelling is exactly the trap here: writers must hold the -tre order from the base word and then add -d to make 'centred', resisting the American 'centered'. The same centrum root also gives us 'central', 'concentrate' and 'eccentric'.

How the word is built

• centr- (from Latin centrum: midpoint)
• -ed (past-tense/adjectival suffix)

British and American spelling

Centred is the British spelling. American English spells it centered.