Inhibited

How to spell inhibited

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce inhibited

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inhibited mean?

1. adjectiveEmotionally restrained or self-conscious, unable to act freely or express feelings.
2. verbHeld back, restrained, or prevented something from happening or developing.

Inhibited in a sentence

• adjective

  He felt too inhibited to dance in front of his new colleagues.

• verb

  The cold weather inhibited the growth of the young seedlings.

• adjective

  Her inhibited manner made the dinner party feel awkward and stiff.

• verb

  Strict budget rules inhibited progress on the hospital wing.

Where does inhibited come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb inhibēre, which combined the prefix in- (here meaning 'in' or 'upon') with habēre, meaning 'to hold' or 'to have'. The literal sense was 'to hold in' or 'to hold back', and that core image of restraint runs through every modern use. English took up inhibit in the fifteenth century, at first in legal and religious contexts where an authority would formally forbid or restrain an action. The psychological sense, describing a person who is emotionally held back or reserved, is much more recent and grew out of late nineteenth-century writing on the mind. The same habēre root that means 'to hold' also gives us 'habit', 'exhibit' and 'prohibit', so the single b and single h in the spelling come straight from that Latin parent rather than from any doubling.

How the word is built

• in- (in, upon)
• -hibit- (from Latin habēre: to hold)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)