Indeed

How to spell indeed

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce indeed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does indeed mean?

1. adverbUsed to emphasise a statement or confirm that something is true or factual.

Indeed in a sentence

• The report was indeed as detailed as the manager had promised.

• The new policy did indeed reduce the waiting times at the clinic.

Where does indeed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Indeed began life in Middle English as two separate words, the phrase 'in dede', meaning literally 'in deed' or 'in actual fact'. The noun 'deed' comes from the Old English dǣd, which meant a thing done, an act or accomplishment, and is closely related to the verb 'to do'. The phrase was used to insist that something was true in reality rather than merely in word or theory, so 'in deed' contrasted action against empty talk. Over the 1300s and 1400s the two words gradually fused into a single adverb, and by the 1500s 'indeed' was firmly written as one word, carrying its modern emphasising sense of 'truly' or 'in fact'. The spelling trap is exactly that origin: writers sometimes split it back into 'in deed' or drop one of the doubled letters, but the standard form welds the preposition straight onto the noun 'deed'.

How the word is built

• in- (in, preposition)
• deed (act, fact, from Old English dǣd)