Marred

How to spell marred

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce marred

What does marred mean?

1. verbSpoiled or damaged the appearance, quality, or enjoyment of something.

Marred in a sentence

• Deep scratches marred the polished surface of the table.

• An otherwise excellent report was marred by careless typing errors.

Where does marred come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'mar', which descends from the Old English merran or mierran, meaning 'to hinder, waste, or spoil'. The original sense was closer to obstructing or damaging something rather than merely blemishing it, and over centuries the meaning narrowed toward disfiguring or detracting from something otherwise good. The word has cousins across the older Germanic languages, including forms meaning 'to stumble' or 'to obstruct', which preserve that early idea of getting in the way. Because 'mar' ends in a single short vowel followed by a single consonant, the past tense doubles the r before adding -ed, giving 'marred'; that doubling is the main spelling trap, since writers sometimes leave a single r. The word is old and native rather than borrowed, which is why it stays short and blunt while carrying a faintly literary tone today.

How the word is built

• mar (Old English merran: to spoil, hinder)
• -r- (doubled consonant)
• -ed (past tense suffix)