Dropped

How to spell dropped

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dropped

What does dropped mean?

1. verbPast tense of drop: let something fall, or caused something to fall or decrease.

Dropped in a sentence

• She dropped the glass and it shattered on the kitchen floor.

• The company dropped its prices to clear last season's stock.

Where does dropped come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'drop', which traces back to the Old English noun 'dropa', meaning a small globule or bead of liquid, and the related verb 'dropian', 'to fall in drops'. The root sits in the same Germanic family as the Dutch 'drop' and the German 'Tropfen', all describing a tiny falling droplet. Over time the verb broadened from the literal trickling of water to any sudden fall, release, or lowering, so we now 'drop' a phone, a price, or a friend. The spelling trap lives in the past tense: because 'drop' ends in a single stressed vowel followed by a single consonant, that 'p' doubles before the '-ed' ending, giving 'dropped' rather than 'droped'. The same doubling rule shapes relatives such as 'stopped', 'shopped', and 'mapped'.

How the word is built

• drop (to let fall)
• -ed (past tense suffix), with the final consonant doubled before -ed