Multiplied

How to spell multiplied

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce multiplied

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does multiplied mean?

1. verbIncreased greatly in number, or combined two numbers by multiplication, in the past.

Multiplied in a sentence

• The project costs multiplied once the delays began.

• She multiplied the unit price by the quantity to reach the total.

Where does multiplied come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense and past participle of 'multiply', which English took from the Old French 'multiplier' in the 1200s and 1300s. The French word descended from the Latin 'multiplicare', meaning 'to increase' or literally 'to fold many times', built from 'multus' (much or many) and 'plicare' (to fold). That same 'plicare' root for folding still hides inside familiar words such as 'ply', 'plait', 'reply' and 'complicated', all of which carry a sense of folding or layering. The mathematical meaning of repeated addition grew naturally from the idea of increasing a quantity many times over. The spelling trap sits at the end: the base 'multiply' ends in a consonant plus 'y', so the 'y' changes to 'i' before the '-ed' is added, giving 'multiplied' rather than 'multiplyed'.

How the word is built

• multi- (many)
• -pli- (from Latin plicare: to fold)
• -ed (past tense/participle)