Fenced

How to spell fenced

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fenced

What does fenced mean?

1. verbSurrounded or enclosed an area with a fence.
2. verbTook part in the sport of fighting with slender swords.

Fenced in a sentence

• The farmer fenced the paddock before turning the horses loose.

• She fenced for the national team throughout university.

• They fenced off the building site to keep the public out.

• The two athletes fenced for three intense rounds.

Where does fenced come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'fence', which began life as a clipped form of the noun 'defence'. That older word traces back to the Latin defendere, meaning 'to ward off' or 'to protect', built from de- ('away') and an old verb fendere ('to strike'). In late medieval English a 'fence' was originally any means of defending or guarding a place, and only later did the sense narrow to the wooden or wire barrier that marks a boundary. The verb followed naturally, so to 'fence' a field meant to protect or enclose it, and 'fenced' records that completed action. The same Latin fendere lies hidden inside 'offend' and 'defend', and the silent loss of the opening 'de-' is why the spelling looks so simple while the family tree is surprisingly grand.

How the word is built

• fence (enclosure, shortened from 'defence')
• -ed (past tense suffix)