Computed

How to spell computed

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce computed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does computed mean?

1. verbCalculated or worked out a result, especially using numbers or a machine.

Computed in a sentence

• The accountant computed the annual tax owed before lunch.

• The software computed the shortest route between the two warehouses.

Where does computed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'compute', which comes from the Latin verb computare, meaning 'to count up' or 'to reckon together'. That verb was built from the prefix com-, meaning 'together', and putare, which originally meant 'to prune' or 'to clean up' and later came to mean 'to reckon' or 'to think over', as if one were settling accounts in the mind. English took the word in during the seventeenth century, first for the act of calculating numbers, and it kept its arithmetical sense closely. The same Latin root sits inside the everyday words 'count' (which arrived through Old French conter) and 'computer', the machine that does the reckoning for us. Because the spelling preserves the Latin put cleanly, the only real trap is remembering the single 'm' and single 't', resisting the urge to double either consonant.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• put (from Latin putare: to reckon, calculate)
• -ed (past tense suffix)