Exercised

How to spell exercised

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exercised

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exercised mean?

1. verbEngaged in physical activity to improve or maintain fitness (past tense).
2. verbMade use of, applied, or put into effect a right, power, or quality (past tense).
3. adjectiveWorried, agitated, or preoccupied about an issue.

Exercised in a sentence

• verb

  She exercised every morning before leaving for work.

• verb

  The judge exercised discretion when reducing the fine.

• adjective

  The committee was deeply exercised about the budget shortfall.

• verb

  He exercised at the local gym three times last week.

• verb

  The tenants exercised their legal right to challenge the eviction.

• adjective

  Residents felt particularly exercised over the proposed road closure.

Where does exercised come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb exercere, which meant 'to keep busy', 'to train', or 'to work thoroughly'. It was built from the prefix ex-, meaning 'out' or 'thoroughly', joined to arcere, meaning 'to keep off' or 'to restrain', so the literal idea was of driving something out of confinement and putting it to active work. Latin passed it into Old French as exercer, and English took it up in the late 1300s, at first for the disciplined training of body, mind, or troops. From the sense of putting a faculty to work came the modern meanings of taking physical activity and of applying a power or right. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the silent pattern -erc- followed by -ise, where the c is sounded as an s, leads many writers to double up or swap the letters.

How the word is built

• ex- (thoroughly)
• erc (from Latin arcere: to restrain, keep busy)
• -ise (verb)
• -ed (past tense)