Masked

How to spell masked

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce masked

What does masked mean?

1. adjectiveWearing a mask, or hidden so that the true form or identity is not visible.
2. verbPast tense of mask: hid or concealed something so it could not be seen or detected.

Masked in a sentence

• adjective

  A masked intruder was caught on the security camera.

• verb

  The loud music masked the sound of the approaching train.

• adjective

  The data showed a masked pattern that only emerged after careful analysis.

• verb

  A calm expression masked her genuine anxiety during the interview.

Where does masked come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word mask came into English in the late 1500s from the French masque, which itself was borrowed from the Italian maschera, meaning a covering for the face worn at festivities or on the stage. The deeper roots are debated: some trace it to the Arabic maskhara, meaning a buffoon or an object of ridicule, while others point to a Late Latin word masca, meaning a witch or a ghost. The sense of physically hiding the face quickly broadened into the figurative idea of concealing feelings, motives, or facts. Adding the regular English ending -ed produced masked, used both as the past tense of the verb and as an adjective describing something or someone whose true nature is hidden. The spelling trap is purely sound: the ending is pronounced 'kt' yet is still written -ked, never -kt or -kd.

How the word is built

• mask (a covering for the face)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)