Insert

How to spell insert

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce insert

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does insert mean?

1. verbTo place or fit something into something else.
2. nounAn extra item placed inside something, such as a loose page or leaflet in a publication.

Insert in a sentence

• verb

  Please insert your card into the machine to pay.

• noun

  The magazine came with a glossy advertising insert for a new car.

• verb

  The editor asked me to insert a comma after the name.

• noun

  The recipe was printed on a separate insert tucked into the cookbook.

Where does insert come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb inserere, formed from in- meaning 'in' or 'into' and serere meaning 'to join together' or 'to put in a row'. The same serere root lies behind a surprising family of English words, including 'series' (things joined in sequence) and 'assert' (to join your claim firmly). The literal early sense was to set or graft one thing into another, much as a gardener inserts a shoot into a stock. English took it up in the early sixteenth century from the Latin past participle insertus, meaning 'put in'. Because the spelling preserves the clean in- prefix and the -sert root, it rarely trips writers up, though the noun and verb differ only in where the stress falls.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• sert (from serere: to join, to put in a row)