Framed

How to spell framed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce framed

What does framed mean?

1. verbPast tense of frame: to have set a picture or photograph within a border or surround for display.
2. verbPast tense of frame: to have made an innocent person appear guilty by arranging false evidence.
3. verbPast tense of frame: to have constructed, shaped, or expressed something such as a question, plan, or argument.

Framed in a sentence

• She had the wedding photograph framed in oak before hanging it.

• The witness later admitted that the suspect had been framed for the robbery.

• The committee framed the new policy around three clear goals.

• The gallery framed each painting to match its period.

• He insisted he was framed by a colleague who planted the documents.

• She carefully framed her question so it could not be misread.

Where does framed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'frame', which descends from the Old English 'framian', meaning 'to make progress' or 'to be useful', closely tied to the word 'fram', meaning 'forward'. The deeper Germanic sense was about putting things into a forward, ready, or fitted arrangement, and from that grew the medieval idea of constructing or shaping something, such as fitting timbers together to build a house. By the late Middle Ages the noun 'frame' came to mean a fitted border or supporting structure, and the verb followed to mean 'to enclose in a border' or 'to construct'. The slang sense of falsely incriminating someone, as in fitting a person up for a crime, appeared in American English in the late nineteenth century. The spelling is straightforward: the silent final 'e' of 'frame' is kept before the '-ed' ending, giving 'framed'.

How the word is built

• frame (a structure, border)
• -ed (past-tense/participle suffix)