Hardened

How to spell hardened

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hardened

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hardened mean?

1. verbBecame firm or solid, or made something firm, solid, or less yielding.
2. adjectiveMade tough, durable, or emotionally unfeeling through treatment or experience.

Hardened in a sentence

• verb

  The molten lava hardened into solid black rock within hours.

• adjective

  The factory produces hardened steel for cutting tools and drill bits.

• verb

  The glue hardened overnight and held the joint firmly in place.

• adjective

  The hardened criminal showed no remorse during the trial.

Where does hardened come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English adjective heard, meaning 'firm, solid, or severe', which traces back to a common Germanic root shared with the Dutch hard and the German hart. To this base English added the verb-forming suffix -en, which turns an adjective into a verb meaning 'to make or become that quality', exactly as in 'darken', 'soften', and 'sharpen'; so 'harden' literally means 'to make hard'. The form 'hardened' is the past tense and past participle, carrying the regular -ed ending, and it has also long served as an adjective describing something that has been made tough or unfeeling. From the literal sense of metal or clay setting firm, the word stretched into figurative use by the late Middle Ages, describing people made callous or resistant through repeated experience. Because the verb already ends in -en, the spelling simply adds -ed without any doubling, which is the small detail worth fixing in memory.

How the word is built

• hard (Old English heard: firm, solid)
• -en (suffix forming a verb: to make or become)
• -ed (past tense / past participle)