Challenged

How to spell challenged

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce challenged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does challenged mean?

1. verbPast tense of challenge: disputed, questioned, or invited to compete.
2. adjectiveFacing a particular difficulty or impairment in a stated area.

Challenged in a sentence

• verb

  The lawyer challenged the validity of the contract in court.

• adjective

  The new building has ramps for mobility challenged visitors.

• verb

  She challenged the referee about the disallowed goal.

• adjective

  The software includes captions for hearing challenged users.

Where does challenged come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the Latin calumnia, which meant a false accusation, trickery, or a malicious legal claim, and which also gives us the modern word 'calumny'. Latin passed it into Old French as chalenge, where it carried the sense of an accusation or a formal claim to something. When English borrowed it in the 1200s, it first meant to accuse someone or to lay claim to a right, and only later softened into the familiar sense of inviting someone to a contest or disputing a statement. The unexpected double 'l' and the soft 'g' both survive from that French spelling, which is exactly why the modern form looks heavier than it sounds. The participle 'challenged' simply adds the regular '-ed' ending, and in the twentieth century it also grew a careful adjective use describing a person who faces a particular difficulty.

How the word is built

• challenge (from Latin calumnia: false accusation)
• -ed (past tense / participle suffix)