Exhausted

How to spell exhausted

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exhausted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exhausted mean?

1. adjectiveDrained of energy; extremely tired.
2. verbPast form of exhaust: used up completely or drained of contents.

Exhausted in a sentence

• adjective

  After the long night shift she felt completely exhausted.

• verb

  The team had exhausted every option before asking for outside help.

• adjective

  The runners looked exhausted as they crossed the finish line.

• verb

  By midday the shop had exhausted its entire stock of fans.

Where does exhausted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb exhaurire, formed from ex- meaning 'out' and haurire meaning 'to draw off' or 'to drain', as one would draw water from a well. The literal sense was to empty something completely by drawing out its contents, and that physical image of a drained vessel is still felt in modern uses. English adopted 'exhaust' in the sixteenth century, at first for the idea of using something up entirely, and the past participle 'exhausted' soon doubled as an adjective for people drained of energy. The spelling keeps the silent 'h' and the 'au' from the Latin root haurire, which is exactly where careful writers slip, since the cluster 'xhau' is pronounced nothing like it looks. The same haurire root also underlies the rarer word 'exhaustive', meaning thorough enough to have drawn out every possibility.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• haust (drawn off, drained, from Latin haurire 'to draw water')
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)