Ended

How to spell ended

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ended

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ended mean?

1. verbBrought something to a conclusion, or came to a stop, in the past.

Ended in a sentence

• The meeting ended an hour earlier than planned.

• Their contract ended at the close of the financial year.

Where does ended come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'end', which descends from the Old English 'endian', meaning to finish, complete, or bring to a close. That verb was built on the noun 'ende', which named a boundary, a limit, or the furthest point of something, and it shares deep Germanic roots with the Dutch 'einde' and the German 'Ende', both meaning the same thing. Even further back, scholars trace it to an ancient root suggesting something that stands opposite or in front, the idea of the part where a thing stops. The straightforward '-ed' ending is the standard English marker for the past tense, simply added to the root 'end', so the only real spelling point is remembering the single 'd' of the root plus the 'ed' suffix rather than doubling anything.

How the word is built

• end (Old English ende: limit, conclusion)
• -ed (past tense suffix)