Parted

How to spell parted

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce parted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does parted mean?

1. verbMoved apart, split, or went separate ways (past tense of part).

Parted in a sentence

• The two colleagues parted at the airport and flew to different cities.

• She gently parted the curtains to check the weather outside.

Where does parted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'part', which traces back to the Latin noun pars, partem, meaning 'a piece, portion, or share'. From that noun Latin formed the verb partire, 'to divide or split into shares', and Old French carried it into English as partir during the medieval period, around the 1200s. The original idea of dividing something into portions broadened into the senses we use today: to separate two things, to open something up, or for people to leave one another. The same pars root sits inside a large family of familiar words such as 'partner', 'party', 'portion', 'apart', and 'depart', all sharing the notion of a piece or a separation. Because the base word 'part' is so plain and regular, the past form simply adds the standard -ed ending, which keeps the spelling straightforward.

How the word is built

• part (a portion, from Latin pars)
• -ed (past tense suffix)