Educated

How to spell educated

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce educated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does educated mean?

1. adjectiveHaving received a good standard of teaching, or showing the knowledge that such teaching brings.
2. verbPast tense of educate: taught or trained someone over a period of time.

Educated in a sentence

• adjective

  The company prefers to hire well educated candidates for its research roles.

• verb

  The charity educated thousands of rural children before its funding ran out.

• adjective

  Her educated guess about the budget turned out to be remarkably accurate.

• verb

  He educated himself in accountancy through evening courses.

Where does educated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb educare, meaning 'to bring up, train, or rear', which was closely tied to educere, 'to lead out' or 'to draw forth', built from e- 'out' and ducere 'to lead'. The underlying image is of leading a learner out of ignorance and drawing forth their potential, an idea many teachers still cherish. The form 'educate' entered English in the fifteenth century from the Latin past participle educatus, and the spelling has stayed close to its Latin shape ever since. The same ducere root, 'to lead', surfaces in a whole family of English words such as conduct, produce, reduce, and aqueduct. Knowing that the 'duc' chunk means 'lead' helps fix the tricky middle of the word, which sounds like 'juh' but is spelled with that hidden Latin 'duc'.

How the word is built

• e- (out)
• duc (to lead)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)