Deep

How to spell deep

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce deep

What does deep mean?

1. adjectiveExtending far down from the top or surface, or far in from an outer edge.
2. adjectiveStrong, profound, or intense in quality, such as a colour, sound, or feeling.
3. adverbTo or at a considerable depth or distance.

Deep in a sentence

• adjective

  The swimmers avoided the deep end of the pool.

• adjective

  She painted the bedroom a deep shade of blue.

• adverb

  The miners worked deep underground for most of the shift.

• adjective

  Workers dug a deep trench for the new drainage pipe.

• adjective

  His deep voice carried across the lecture hall.

• adverb

  The cabin sat deep within the forest, miles from any road.

Where does deep come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Deep descends from the Old English deop, an adjective meaning 'having great extent downward', which traces back to the Proto-Germanic root deupaz with the same sense of going far down. It shares ancestry with the Dutch diep and the German tief, all carrying ideas of depth and lowness. The underlying notion was simply spatial distance from the top or surface, and over centuries English extended it figuratively to thoughts, sounds, colours, and emotions that feel intense or profound. The related noun 'depth' was actually formed later from the adjective, and the verb 'deepen' came later still. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, its spelling has stayed remarkably stable, with the 'ee' simply marking the long vowel.

How the word is built

• deep (a single Old English root word; no prefix or suffix)