Layout

How to spell layout

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce layout

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does layout mean?

1. nounThe way in which the parts of something are arranged or set out.

Layout in a sentence

• The designer revised the page layout before sending it to print.

• The open-plan office layout encourages staff to collaborate.

Where does layout come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a homegrown English compound rather than a borrowing, built from the native verb 'lay', which descends from Old English 'lecgan' meaning 'to place or set down', and the adverb 'out', from Old English 'ut'. The phrasal verb 'to lay out' meant to spread something flat or to arrange items in an orderly way, a sense visible since the medieval period. By the middle of the nineteenth century English speakers had welded the two halves into the single noun 'layout' to name the planned arrangement of something, first in printing and surveying and later in design generally. The spelling trap is simply remembering that the noun is one solid word, with no space and no hyphen, even though the verb phrase 'lay out' is written as two words. A useful memory hook: the verb still keeps its space, but the noun closes ranks into one.

How the word is built

• lay (to place or arrange)
• out (adverb particle); a noun formed from the phrasal verb 'lay out'