Chained

How to spell chained

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce chained

What does chained mean?

1. verbFastened, secured, or restrained something with a chain (past tense of chain).
2. adjectiveFastened or held in place by a chain.

Chained in a sentence

• verb

  The courier chained the bicycle to the lamp post outside the office.

• adjective

  The chained ledger sat on the desk so nobody could remove it.

• verb

  Staff chained the warehouse gates shut before the long weekend.

• adjective

  A chained barrier blocked the entrance to the closed car park.

Where does chained come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense and past participle of 'chain', which English took from the Old French chaeine, itself descended from the Latin catena, meaning 'a chain' or 'a fetter'. The Latin word carried the literal sense of linked metal rings used to bind or restrain, and that core idea of physical binding survives intact in the modern word. English adopted the noun in the 1200s and was using it as a verb, meaning to fasten or secure with a chain, by the 1300s; the -ed form then marks the completed action. The same catena root still lives in 'concatenate', the technical word for stringing items together in a sequence. The spelling preserves the French-influenced 'ai' that represents the long 'a' sound, which is the main thing to watch when writing it.

How the word is built

• chain (from Latin catena: a chain or fetter)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)