Occupied

How to spell occupied

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce occupied

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does occupied mean?

1. adjectiveAlready being used, filled, or kept busy, so not free or available.
2. verbPast tense of occupy: took up, filled, or held possession of a space or position.

Occupied in a sentence

• adjective

  Every seat on the train was occupied by the time we boarded.

• verb

  The new tenants occupied the flat at the start of the month.

• adjective

  The toilet door showed a red sign meaning it was occupied.

• verb

  Paperwork occupied most of her afternoon at the office.

Where does occupied come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin verb occupare, which meant 'to seize', 'to take possession of', or 'to fill up'. That verb was formed from the prefix ob-, here in its assimilated form oc-, carrying the sense of 'over' or 'onto', joined to capere, meaning 'to take' or 'to grasp', the same root that gives English words like capture and capable. Old French reshaped it as occuper, and English adopted it during the 1300s, at first meaning to take up space or hold land, and later to keep someone busy. The double c reflects that assimilated Latin prefix, while there is only a single p, and that mismatch is the very trap that makes the word slippery to spell. When occupy adds an ending, the final y turns to i, giving the familiar occupied.

How the word is built

• oc- (variant of ob-: over, onto)
• cup (from Latin capere: to take, seize)
• -ied (past tense / adjective ending, y becoming i)