Explored

How to spell explored

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce explored

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does explored mean?

1. verbTravelled through or examined an unfamiliar place or subject in order to learn about it.

Explored in a sentence

• The family explored the old harbour town before lunch.

• The report explored several options for cutting costs.

Where does explored come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'explore', which comes from the Latin verb explorare, meaning 'to search out' or 'to investigate'. The word was built from ex-, meaning 'out', and plorare, meaning 'to cry out' or 'to wail'. One persuasive explanation is that the term began as a hunting word: scouts would 'cry out' on sighting game, so to explorare a region was literally to range over it raising the alarm. English took the verb in by way of French in the 1500s, when it carried the sense of examining or testing something carefully. Over time the meaning broadened from cautious investigation to the modern idea of travelling into unknown places, while the spelling kept the single Latin 'l' that occasionally trips writers who expect a doubled letter.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• plor (from Latin plorare: to cry out)
• -ed (past tense suffix)