Guaranteed

How to spell guaranteed

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce guaranteed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does guaranteed mean?

1. verbPromised or assured something with a binding commitment, often backed by responsibility for the outcome.
2. adjectiveCertain to happen or backed by a firm promise, leaving no doubt about the result.

Guaranteed in a sentence

• verb

  The bank guaranteed the loan against her property.

• adjective

  The pension scheme offers a guaranteed income for life.

• verb

  The courier guaranteed delivery before noon on Friday.

• adjective

  A guaranteed place at the conference came with early registration.

Where does guaranteed come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the Old French garant, meaning a protector, defender, or warrant, which was itself absorbed from a Germanic source related to the same root that gave English the word 'warrant'. The Old French noun produced garantie, the act of giving security or assurance, and from that came the English noun 'guarantee' in the early 1600s, originally describing a person who stood as surety for another. Because French wrote the sound with 'gu', English inherited that silent-looking 'u' after the 'g', which is exactly the trap that makes the word so easy to misspell. The form 'guaranteed' is simply the past tense and participle, formed by adding -d. It is worth remembering that 'guarantee' and 'warranty' are essentially the same word arriving by two different routes, one keeping the hard Germanic 'w' and the other the softened French 'gu'.

How the word is built

• guarantee (from Old French garant, a protector or warrant)
• -d (past tense / participle ending)