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Informed

adjectiveHaving or showing relevant knowledge and good background understanding.

How to spell informed

informed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce informed

American pronunciation
in-FORMD
/ˌɪnˈfɔrmd/

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does informed mean?

  1. adjectiveHaving or showing relevant knowledge and good background understanding.
  2. verbTold or notified someone of a fact (past tense of inform).

Informed in a sentence

Voice

Where does informed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb informare, which literally meant 'to give shape to' or 'to form in the mind', built from in- 'into' and forma 'shape, form'. In late Latin the sense extended from physically moulding something to mentally shaping a person through instruction, so to 'inform' someone was to fill their mind with knowledge. English took the verb through Old French enformer during the 1300s, and the spelling later settled back toward the Latin form with the medial 'in-'. The past participle 'informed' came to work as an adjective meaning 'having knowledge', as in an informed decision. Because the word is built so transparently from 'inform' plus '-ed', its spelling rarely surprises adults, though the silent shift of stress can make the final 'ed' easy to overlook in fast speech.

How the word is built

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