Fronted

How to spell fronted

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fronted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fronted mean?

1. verbPast tense of 'front': to have faced, led, represented, or provided money in advance for something.
2. adjectiveIn grammar, describing a word or phrase moved to the beginning of a sentence for emphasis.

Fronted in a sentence

• verb

  She fronted the cash for the deposit and was repaid the following month.

• adjective

  The teacher explained that a fronted adverbial is usually followed by a comma.

• verb

  A well-known presenter fronted the new charity campaign last spring.

• adjective

  In this exercise the children practise writing fronted phrases to open each paragraph.

Where does fronted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'front', which traces back to the Latin noun frons, meaning 'forehead' or 'front'. Through Old French 'front', the word entered English in the 1200s referring literally to the forehead, then more broadly to the foremost part or face of anything. The verb sense, meaning to face toward, to lead, or to stand at the front, developed later, and from it came everyday uses such as fronting a band or fronting the money for a deal. The grammatical sense, a 'fronted' phrase moved to the front of a sentence, is a modern technical extension of the same idea. The spelling stays regular: keep the single 't' of 'front' and simply add '-ed', resisting any urge to double the consonant.

How the word is built

• front (from Latin frons: forehead, front)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)