Folded

How to spell folded

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce folded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does folded mean?

1. verbBent or doubled something over on itself, as with cloth or paper.
2. verbCeased trading or operating, especially of a business that ran out of money.

Folded in a sentence

• She carefully folded the clean towels and stacked them in the cupboard.

• The small bookshop folded after the rent doubled overnight.

• He folded the letter neatly and slid it into the envelope.

• Two local newspapers folded within the same year.

Where does folded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'fold', which traces back to the Old English fealdan, meaning 'to bend something over on itself' or 'to wrap up'. That verb belonged to a wider Germanic family, sharing roots with the Old High German faltan and the Old Norse falda, all carrying the same sense of doubling cloth or material over. The deeper ancestor is thought to be a prehistoric root meaning 'to plait' or 'to braid', which is why folding and weaving sit so close in meaning. Over the centuries the word stretched far beyond cloth and paper: by the modern era a business that collapsed was said to have 'folded', and a card player who quit a hand 'folded' too. The spelling stays simple and regular, with the everyday -ed ending added cleanly to the short root fold.

How the word is built

• fold (Old English fealdan: to bend over)
• -ed (past tense suffix)