Defended

How to spell defended

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce defended

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does defended mean?

1. verbPast tense of defend: protected from attack or harm, or argued in support of something.

Defended in a sentence

• The soldiers defended the town through a long winter siege.

• She defended her budget proposal calmly against every objection.

Where does defended come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'defend', which comes from the Latin verb defendere, meaning 'to ward off' or 'to keep away from harm'. That verb joined the prefix de-, carrying the sense of 'off' or 'away', to the root fendere, 'to strike' or 'to hit', so the literal idea was striking a threat back and pushing it away. English took the word through Old French defendre in the 1200s, where it covered both protecting someone and forbidding something. The same buried fendere root survives in 'offend' (to strike against) and in 'fender', the part that takes the blow on a car or a fireplace. Spellers rarely struggle with the body of the word; the only mild trap is hearing the unstressed final syllable and remembering it ends in plain -ed rather than anything fancier.

How the word is built

• de- (off, away)
• fend (from Latin fendere: to strike)
• -ed (past tense)