Entitled

How to spell entitled

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce entitled

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does entitled mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a legitimate right or just claim to something.
2. adjectiveBelieving oneself to deserve special privileges or treatment without having earned them.
3. verbGiven a particular name or heading, as a book, song, or report.

Entitled in a sentence

• adjective

  Every full-time employee is entitled to four weeks of paid leave.

• adjective

  His entitled behaviour at the office made him unpopular with the rest of the team.

• verb

  She wrote a memoir entitled My Years at Sea.

• adjective

  As a season ticket holder, she was entitled to a discount on parking.

• adjective

  The manager grew tired of the entitled tone in the customer's complaints.

• verb

  The report was entitled A Review of Regional Spending.

Where does entitled come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun titulus, which meant an inscription, a label, or a heading written on something, and which is also the direct ancestor of the modern word 'title'. Late Latin formed the verb intitulare, meaning 'to give a heading or name to', built from the prefix in- (here meaning 'to put into' or 'to make') joined to titulus. The verb passed into Old French as entiteler and then into English in the fourteenth century, originally meaning simply 'to give a title to' a book or person. From the idea of bestowing a formal title came the sense of granting someone a rightful claim, so 'entitled to' came to mean 'having a just right to'. The more recent and disapproving sense, describing a person who feels they automatically deserve privileges, grew out of that same notion of claimed rights. The spelling keeps the silent root 'title' visible, which is the easiest way to remember the single 't' after the prefix.

How the word is built

• en- (to put into, to make)
• title (from Latin titulus: inscription, label)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)