Listed

How to spell listed

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce listed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does listed mean?

1. verbPast tense of 'list': entered or set down in a written series of names or items.
2. adjectiveOf a building: officially recorded as having special historical or architectural interest and legally protected.
3. adjectiveOf a company: admitted to trading on a recognised stock exchange.

Listed in a sentence

• verb

  The agent listed the house at a price well above the local average.

• adjective

  The cottage is a listed property, so the owners cannot alter the windows without consent.

• adjective

  The firm became a listed company after its shares began trading in March.

• verb

  She listed every ingredient before starting the weekly shop.

• adjective

  Replacing the slate roof on a listed farmhouse required approval from the council.

• adjective

  Investors prefer a listed business because its accounts are public and regulated.

Where does listed come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of the verb 'list', which grew out of the noun 'list' meaning a written series of names or items. The noun traces back through Old French 'liste', a strip, band, or border, which was itself borrowed from a Germanic source related to Old English 'liste', meaning the edge or selvage of cloth. The link between a 'border' and a 'catalogue' comes from the medieval habit of writing names along a strip or margin of parchment, so a strip of recorded names slowly became simply a list. By the 1600s 'list' was working as a verb meaning to enter something in such a record, and the regular '-ed' ending gave us 'listed'. The same humble 'edge of cloth' root also survives in 'enlist', literally to put a soldier's name on the roll, which is a useful reminder that the single 't' before '-ed' is all the word needs.

How the word is built

• list (catalogue, roll)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)