Fled

How to spell fled

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fled

What does fled mean?

1. verbPast tense of flee: ran away quickly to escape danger, capture, or an unpleasant situation.

Fled in a sentence

• The residents fled the burning building before the roof collapsed.

• The suspect fled the scene moments before the police arrived.

Where does fled come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'flee', which descends from the Old English verb fleon, meaning 'to run away' or 'to take flight from danger'. That verb belonged to the broad family of Germanic words tied to flight and escape, and in early English it was sometimes tangled up with the related notion of flying through the air. Over the centuries the spelling settled with the short vowel, giving the irregular past form 'fled' rather than a regular '-ed' shape. The word kept its core meaning of escaping or running off, whether from a battle, a fire, or simply an uncomfortable situation. Its closeness to 'fly' and 'flight' is no accident, since all three trace back to the same Germanic root for swift movement away.

How the word is built

• fle- (from flee: to run away)
• -d (past tense ending)