Decided

How to spell decided

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce decided

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does decided mean?

1. verbPast tense of decide: reached a conclusion or made a choice after consideration.
2. adjectiveClear and unmistakable; definite in extent or quality.

Decided in a sentence

• verb

  After weeks of viewings, they decided to buy the smaller flat.

• adjective

  Experience gave her a decided advantage over the other candidates.

• verb

  The board decided against raising fees this year.

• adjective

  There was a decided improvement in the patient after the new treatment.

Where does decided come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb decidere, which literally meant 'to cut off' and was formed from de- meaning 'off' or 'away' and caedere meaning 'to cut'. The image behind it is vivid: to settle a matter is to cut away the other options, leaving only one course. The sense moved from this physical cutting to the figurative idea of bringing a question to an end, and Latin already used decidere to mean 'to determine' or 'to resolve'. English took the verb through Old French decider in the late 1300s, and the form 'decided' is simply the past tense, with the adjectival use ('clear, unmistakable') developing later from the notion of something settled beyond doubt. The same caedere root, meaning 'to cut', also hides inside relatives such as 'concise', 'incision', and 'homicide', which is a useful reminder that the central syllable is cid and not the 'side' it sounds like.

How the word is built

• de- (off, away)
• cid (from Latin caedere: to cut)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)