Cleaned

How to spell cleaned

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cleaned

What does cleaned mean?

1. verbPast tense of clean: removed dirt, marks, or unwanted matter from something.

Cleaned in a sentence

• She cleaned the kitchen before the guests arrived.

• The contractor cleaned every window in the office block.

Where does cleaned come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'clean', which descends from the Old English adjective clǣne, meaning 'pure', 'clear', or 'free from dirt'. The same Germanic root gave German 'klein', which today means 'small' but originally carried a sense of 'fine' or 'delicate'. The verb 'to clean' developed naturally from the adjective, and adding the regular '-ed' suffix produced the past form. The spelling keeps the 'ea' digraph that has long represented the long 'ee' sound in this word, which is the main source of doubt for writers who might reach for 'cleened'. Because the verb is fully regular, the past form is simply the base plus '-ed', with no doubling or vowel change.

How the word is built

• clean (Old English clǣne: pure, clear)
• -ed (past tense/past participle suffix)