Nodded

How to spell nodded

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nodded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nodded mean?

1. verbMoved the head down and up briefly, usually to show agreement, greeting, or drowsiness.

Nodded in a sentence

• She nodded in agreement during the budget meeting.

• The security guard nodded politely as the visitors entered.

Where does nodded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'nod', which first appears in Middle English around the late 1300s as 'nodden', meaning to bow the head quickly. Its earlier origins are genuinely murky: it has no clear single ancestor and may be related to Old High German 'hnoton', meaning to shake or move to and fro, suggesting a shared Germanic root for a quick repeated movement. From the start the word described the small downward dip of the head that signals agreement, greeting, or drowsiness, and that sense has stayed remarkably stable. The spelling trap lives entirely in the inflection: because 'nod' ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant in a stressed syllable, that final 'd' doubles before '-ed', giving 'nodded' rather than the wrong single-d 'noded'. Knowing the doubling rule, the same one behind 'plotted' and 'stopped', is the surest way to keep the spelling right.

How the word is built

• nod (the base verb)
• -d-ed (doubled final consonant before the past-tense suffix -ed)