Clocked

How to spell clocked

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce clocked

What does clocked mean?

1. verbRecorded or measured the speed, time, or progress of something or someone.
2. verbNoticed or became aware of something, often quickly (informal British usage).
3. verbStruck or hit someone, usually with the fist (informal).

Clocked in a sentence

• The speed camera clocked the van at ninety miles per hour.

• She clocked the error in the invoice before sending it.

• The boxer clocked his opponent with a sharp right hook.

• Officials clocked the sprinter at a personal best in the heats.

• He clocked the change in her tone right away.

• He clocked his head on the low doorframe.

Where does clocked come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word clock entered English in the late 1300s from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German klocke, meaning 'bell', which in turn came from Medieval Latin clocca, also meaning 'bell'. The link to bells makes sense because the earliest public clocks marked the hours by ringing rather than by showing a face, so people heard the time before they saw it. The Latin form may ultimately have Celtic roots, since similar bell-words appear in early Irish. As mechanical timepieces spread, clock shifted from naming the bell to naming the whole timekeeping device, and from there it became a verb meaning 'to time' or 'to measure'. The past-tense form clocked simply adds the regular -ed ending to that verb, and because the root keeps its hard -ck, the spelling stays phonetically transparent.

How the word is built

• clock (timepiece/to time)
• -ed (past tense suffix)