Curated

How to spell curated

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce curated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does curated mean?

1. verbSelected, organised, and presented a collection of items with deliberate care.
2. adjectiveCarefully selected, organised, and presented for a particular purpose or audience.

Curated in a sentence

• verb

  She curated the entire photography exhibition over eighteen months.

• adjective

  The boutique sells a tightly curated range of locally made goods.

• verb

  The museum staff curated each gallery around a single historical theme.

• adjective

  Subscribers receive a curated box of artisan coffee each month.

Where does curated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The root lies in the Latin word cura, meaning 'care' or 'concern', which gave the verb curare, 'to take care of, to look after'. From curare came curator, the title for a person charged with caring for something, and in English this long meant the keeper of a museum, gallery, or collection. The verb 'to curate' is actually a much later back-formation from 'curator', taking hold in the 1800s and 1900s to describe the work of selecting and arranging exhibits with care. In recent decades the word has broadened well beyond museums to cover any thoughtful selection, from playlists to menus to social feeds. The same cura root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'cure', 'secure', and 'manicure', and remembering that 'care' is the heart of the word helps fix the single -r- and the -ate spelling.

How the word is built

• cur- (from Latin cura: care)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past-tense / past-participle suffix)