Matured

How to spell matured

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce matured

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does matured mean?

1. verbPast tense of mature: developed fully, ripened, or became due for payment.
2. adjectiveDescribing something aged or developed to its full, finished state.

Matured in a sentence

• verb

  The cheese matured slowly in the cellar for two years.

• adjective

  The recipe calls for a well matured cheddar with a sharp bite.

• verb

  His savings bond matured last month and paid out in full.

• adjective

  They bought a house in a leafy, matured neighbourhood with old trees.

Where does matured come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of 'mature', which descends from the Latin adjective maturus, meaning 'ripe', 'timely', or 'ready'. In Roman use maturus described fruit that had come to full ripeness and, by extension, anything that had reached its proper season or moment. The related verb maturare meant 'to ripen' or 'to hasten to completion', and a relic of that sense survives in the English word 'premature', literally 'ripe too early'. English took 'mature' in during the late Middle Ages, partly through Old French and partly straight from Latin, first applying it to crops and fruit and only later to people, plans, and investments that had come of age. The simple '-ed' ending gives the past tense, and the spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle: writers sometimes drop the 'u' or muddle the 'tu' that softens to a 'ch' sound in speech.

How the word is built

• matur- (from Latin maturus: ripe, timely)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)