Merged

How to spell merged

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce merged

What does merged mean?

1. verbCombined or blended two or more things into a single unit.

Merged in a sentence

• The two banks merged to form a larger institution.

• Traffic from both lanes merged smoothly at the junction.

Where does merged come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'merge', which comes from the Latin verb mergere, meaning 'to dip', 'to plunge', or 'to immerse' in water. In its earliest English use during the 1600s it carried that watery sense of being plunged or sunk into something, so that one thing disappeared inside another. From there the meaning shifted gracefully toward the modern idea of two things blending or combining so completely that they become one. The same Latin root survives in the everyday words 'immerse' and 'submerge', which still keep the literal 'dip under water' feeling. Because the soft 'g' is spelled with a 'g' (not a 'j') and the past-tense ending simply adds '-ed', the trap for writers is mostly remembering that single 'g' before the silent-looking ending.

How the word is built

• merg- (from Latin mergere: to dip, plunge, immerse)
• -ed (past-tense/participle suffix)