Effected

How to spell effected

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce effected

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does effected mean?

1. verbBrought about or caused something to happen, especially a change or result.

Effected in a sentence

• The new director effected sweeping changes across every department within a month.

• Parliament finally effected the reforms after years of delay.

Where does effected come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'effect', which comes from the Latin effectus, the past participle of efficere, meaning 'to work out, accomplish, or bring about'. That verb was built from ex, meaning 'out', and facere, meaning 'to make or do', so the literal idea was to make something come fully out into reality. English took it in through Old French during the 1300s, first as a noun for a result and later as a verb meaning to cause something to happen. The same facere root sits inside a large family of English words such as 'manufacture', 'perfect', and 'factory', all carrying the sense of making or doing. The verb 'effect' (to bring about) is constantly confused with 'affect' (to influence), and the trap is sharpest in the past tense, where 'effected' and 'affected' look almost identical but mean very different things.

How the word is built

• ef- (variant of ex-: out)
• fect (from Latin facere: to make or do)
• -ed (past tense suffix)