Concerted

How to spell concerted

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce concerted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does concerted mean?

1. adjectivePlanned and carried out together by several people or groups in a coordinated way.

Concerted in a sentence

• The charity made a concerted effort to reach every household in the town.

• The two departments launched a concerted campaign to cut wasted spending.

Where does concerted come from?

Language of origin: Italian

This word traces back to the Italian verb concertare, which meant 'to bring into agreement' or 'to arrange harmoniously', and it reached English in the early 1600s by way of French concerter. The deeper root is curious, because the Latin concertare actually meant 'to contend' or 'to dispute', built from con- 'together' and certare 'to strive or fight'. Somewhere on its journey through Italian the sense flipped from striving against one another to striving alongside one another, giving us the modern idea of people acting in agreement. The same root underlies the musical noun 'concert', where performers play in coordination. When we speak of a 'concerted effort' today, we mean one that is planned and carried out jointly, a meaning that fits the 'together' in con- far better than the original Latin combat it described.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• cert (from concertare: to arrange, settle)
• -ed (adjective suffix)