Ladders

How to spell ladders

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ladders

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ladders mean?

1. nounStructures with rungs or steps between two long side pieces, used for climbing up or down.
2. nounVertical runs of broken or unravelled threads in tights or stockings.

Ladders in a sentence

• The decorators brought two tall ladders to reach the ceiling.

• She noticed two ladders running up the back of her tights before the interview.

• All of the ladders in the warehouse are inspected for safety every month.

• A dab of clear nail varnish can stop ladders in stockings from spreading.

Where does ladders come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends directly from the Old English hlæder, meaning a frame with rungs used for climbing, and it belongs to a wholly native Germanic family rather than a borrowed one. The same ancestral root produced the Dutch ladder and the German Leiter, and it is thought to connect to an even older sense of 'leaning' or 'inclining', since a ladder is set at a slant against a wall. Through the centuries the spelling settled with a doubled 'd', which preserves the short vowel sound and keeps the word looking solid and stable. The figurative use, as in a 'career ladder' or a 'ladder of success', grew up naturally from the literal image of climbing rung by rung. In British English the noun also took on a clothing sense: a run of broken threads in a stocking or tights resembles the parallel sides and rungs of a ladder.

How the word is built

• ladder (Old English hlæder: a climbing frame)
• -s (plural)