Dazed

How to spell dazed

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dazed

What does dazed mean?

1. adjectiveUnable to think or react clearly, as if stunned by a shock, blow, or sudden tiredness.

Dazed in a sentence

• She looked dazed after the long flight and barely heard the announcements.

• The driver seemed dazed for a moment before stepping out of the dented car.

Where does dazed come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word traces back to the verb 'daze', which English inherited from Old Norse. The likely source is the Old Norse 'dasa', seen in the reflexive 'dasask', meaning 'to become weary' or 'to grow exhausted', and the word arrived through the Scandinavian influence on Middle English, appearing as 'dasen' around the 1300s. The early sense leaned towards being numbed by cold or worn out, and over time it shifted towards the modern idea of being stunned, bewildered, or unable to think clearly after a shock or blow. The adjective 'dazed' is simply the past participle of that verb, formed in the ordinary way by adding '-ed'. Because the root vowel is a long 'a' sound spelled with 'a' followed by 'ze', some writers second-guess the spelling, but the silent-feeling 'z' is the same letter that sits in the parent word 'daze'.

How the word is built

• daze (to stun or stupefy)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)