Included

How to spell included

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce included

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does included mean?

1. verbPast tense of include: contained something as part of a larger whole, or counted someone among a group.

Included in a sentence

• The rental price included all utilities and cleaning.

• The report included figures from the previous quarter.

Where does included come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb includere, which literally meant 'to shut in' or 'to enclose', formed from in- meaning 'in' and claudere meaning 'to close or shut'. The original sense was very physical: to confine something within walls or boundaries, the same way a prisoner might be shut inside a cell. English took the verb in during the 1400s, and over time the meaning softened from physically enclosing to simply 'containing as part of a whole'. The very same claudere root sits inside a family of common words such as 'conclude', 'exclude', and 'seclude', all of which involve some idea of shutting or closing. The past form 'included' keeps the single 'd' added to the base verb, since 'include' already ends in a silent 'e'.

How the word is built

• in- (in)
• clud (from Latin claudere: to close, shut)
• -ed (past tense suffix)