Distracted

How to spell distracted

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce distracted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does distracted mean?

1. adjectiveUnable to concentrate because one's attention is being pulled in other directions.
2. verbDrew someone's attention away from what they were doing (past tense of distract).

Distracted in a sentence

• adjective

  She felt too distracted by the noise to finish the report.

• verb

  The sudden alarm distracted the whole office from their work.

• adjective

  A distracted driver missed the turning entirely.

• verb

  Flashing lights from the roadworks distracted several drivers.

Where does distracted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb distrahere, which literally meant 'to pull apart' or 'to drag in different directions', formed from dis- 'apart' and trahere 'to draw or pull'. Its past participle, distractus, carried the figurative sense of a mind being tugged this way and that, unable to settle on one thing. English adopted the verb 'distract' in the late 1300s, and 'distracted' as its participle and adjective soon followed, describing someone whose attention is being pulled away. The same trahere root, meaning 'to pull', also gives us 'tractor', 'extract', and 'traction', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the 'tract' chunk intact. Knowing that a distracted person is literally 'pulled apart' in attention helps fix the single c and the -ct- cluster in the middle.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• tract (from Latin trahere: to draw, pull)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)