Insides

How to spell insides

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce insides

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does insides mean?

1. nounA person's or animal's internal organs, especially the stomach and digestive parts, spoken of informally.
2. nounThe inner parts or interior portions of an object or structure.

Insides in a sentence

• The spicy curry left her insides churning all evening.

• He scooped out the insides of the pumpkin before carving it.

• The surgeon explained how the injury had damaged his insides.

• The mechanic cleaned the engine's insides thoroughly.

Where does insides come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins two very old Germanic pieces. The first, 'in', comes from Old English 'in', meaning 'within', and it traces back to the same ancient root that gave Latin 'in' and Greek 'en', all carrying the plain sense of being inside something. The second part, 'side', comes from Old English 'side', which originally meant the long flank of a person or animal, the very part you would lie down on. Joined together, 'inside' was used from the late 1500s to mean the interior part or surface of something, and by the 1700s the plural 'insides' had become a homely, slightly informal way to speak of a person's internal organs, especially the stomach and bowels. Because both halves of the word are short, familiar English roots, the spelling is straightforward; the only thing to remember is that the plural 's' attaches cleanly to the end with no change to 'side'.

How the word is built

• in- (within)
• side (flank, surface)
• -s (plural)