Consolidated

How to spell consolidated

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce consolidated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consolidated mean?

1. verbCombined several things into a single, stronger whole, or made a position firmer and more secure.
2. adjectiveDescribing combined financial figures that present a parent company and its subsidiaries as a single entity.

Consolidated in a sentence

• verb

  The company consolidated its three regional offices into one headquarters.

• adjective

  The auditor reviewed the consolidated accounts of the entire group.

• verb

  She consolidated all her outstanding loans into a single monthly payment.

• adjective

  The consolidated balance sheet showed total assets across all divisions.

Where does consolidated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb consolidare, which meant 'to make firm or solid', built from the prefix con- 'together' and the adjective solidus 'firm, dense, whole'. The same solidus root gives English the everyday words 'solid' and 'solidify', so the idea of making something firmer or merging it into a single mass runs through the whole family. Latin consolidare passed into late Middle English through Old French and medical Latin, where it first described the healing or knitting together of a wound or broken bone. By the seventeenth century the sense had broadened to its modern meanings: combining several things into one stronger whole, and strengthening or firming up a position. The financial and corporate uses, such as consolidated debts or consolidated accounts, grew from that same notion of merging many parts into one. The spelling trap is the run of unstressed vowels in the middle (con-SOL-i-da-ted), where the 'i' and the 'a' both soften to a schwa and tempt writers toward the wrong vowel.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• solid (firm, dense)
• -ate (verb)
• -ed (past tense/adjective suffix)