Charred

How to spell charred

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce charred

What does charred mean?

1. adjectiveBurnt until blackened and partly turned to carbon on the surface.
2. verbPast tense of 'char': to have scorched or burnt something until it blackened.

Charred in a sentence

• adjective

  The firefighters picked through the charred remains of the kitchen.

• verb

  The intense heat charred the steak long before the timer rang.

• adjective

  She scraped the charred crust off the toast before eating it.

• verb

  A stray spark charred the edge of the wooden table.

Where does charred come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'char' is a comparatively young English word, first recorded in the 1600s, and it is widely thought to be a back-formation from 'charcoal', the partly burnt wood used as fuel. The first element of 'charcoal' goes back to Old English roots, and one persuasive explanation links it to 'cerran', meaning to turn or to change, since wood is 'turned' into coal by burning. Once 'char' existed as a verb meaning to scorch or reduce to carbon, the past tense and participle 'charred' followed naturally, doubling the r before the -ed ending just as 'star' becomes 'starred'. The spelling trap lies precisely in that doubled r: writers who hear a single sound often want to write 'chared'. Knowing the link to 'charcoal' helps fix both the meaning and the satisfyingly black, burnt image behind the word.

How the word is built

• char (to scorch or burn to carbon)
• -ed (past tense/participle, with the final r doubled before the suffix)