Keeper

How to spell keeper

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce keeper

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does keeper mean?

1. nounA person who looks after, guards, or is responsible for something or someone.
2. nounIn football, hockey, or cricket, the player who guards the goal or stumps; a goalkeeper or wicketkeeper.
3. nounInformally, something or someone considered good enough to retain.

Keeper in a sentence

• The zoo employed a new keeper for the big cats.

• The keeper dived to the left and pushed the penalty wide.

• That recipe was so good it is definitely a keeper.

• The lighthouse keeper logged every passing ship.

• A quick throw from the keeper started the counterattack.

• After the trial week, the manager decided the new hire was a keeper.

Where does keeper come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Keeper is built on the native English verb 'keep', which comes from the Old English cepan, meaning 'to seize, hold on to, observe, or guard'. The early sense was strongly about watchful holding rather than mere ownership, which is why a keeper was originally a person charged with guarding or tending something on another's behalf. The agent suffix -er, also from Old English, simply turns the verb into 'one who keeps', a pattern English has used since at least the medieval period for roles like baker and worker. From the late Middle Ages it attached to all sorts of duties, giving us gamekeeper, gatekeeper and zookeeper. The word stays simple to spell because both parts are plain English: the only thing to watch is the long 'ee' double vowel that 'keep' carries through into keeper.

How the word is built

• keep (Old English cepan: to hold, guard)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)