Fused

How to spell fused

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fused

What does fused mean?

1. verbJoined or blended two or more things into a single whole, often by melting or merging.
2. verbStopped working because a protective fuse melted and broke the circuit.

Fused in a sentence

• The welder fused the two steel beams into one solid frame.

• The kettle overloaded the socket and the whole kitchen fused.

• The band fused jazz and folk into a single distinctive style.

• Every light upstairs fused during the thunderstorm.

Where does fused come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of the verb 'fuse', which traces back to the Latin verb fundere, meaning 'to pour' or 'to melt', and especially to its past participle fusus, meaning 'poured' or 'melted'. The original idea was of molten metal being poured and then setting into a single solid mass, which is why 'fuse' came to mean joining things by melting them together. English adopted the word in the seventeenth century, and from the literal sense of melting metal it broadened into the figurative sense of any two things merging into one. The same fundere root sits inside a surprising family of English words, including 'foundry', where metal is poured, 'infuse', where flavour is poured in, and 'refund', where money is poured back. The single 's' and the 'us' spelling are easier to remember once you connect 'fused' to that idea of metal being poured and melted, rather than to the 'z' sound it actually carries.

How the word is built

• fus- (from Latin fundere/fusus: to pour, to melt)
• -ed (past tense suffix)