Patch

How to spell patch

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce patch

What does patch mean?

1. nounA small piece of material used to cover or mend a hole, tear, or worn area.
2. nounA small distinct area of ground or surface that differs from what surrounds it.
3. verbTo mend or cover something by applying a small piece of material or a fix.

Patch in a sentence

• noun

  She sewed a denim patch over the hole in the knee of the jeans.

• noun

  He grows tomatoes in a sunny patch at the bottom of the garden.

• verb

  The roofer came to patch the leak before the storm arrived.

• noun

  The mechanic glued a rubber patch onto the punctured inner tube.

• noun

  A slippery patch of ice formed on the pavement overnight.

• verb

  The developers will patch the security flaw in the next update.

Where does patch come from?

Language of origin: French

Patch first appears in English in the late 1300s as the Middle English 'pacche', meaning a small piece of cloth used to mend or cover a hole. Its exact origin is genuinely uncertain, but the most favoured explanation links it to an Old French dialect form 'pieche', a regional variant of 'piece', which itself meant a fragment or portion. From the literal idea of a scrap of material stitched over a worn garment, the meaning spread outward in practical directions: a small plot of ground, a covering worn over an injured eye, and a coloured area that stands out from its surroundings. In the computing age the same image was reused, since a software 'patch' is essentially a small fix laid over faulty code. Because the word is short and spelled just as it sounds, the only thing to remember is the 'tch' cluster, which English regularly uses after a short vowel in words like 'match' and 'catch'.

How the word is built

• patch (single root; no prefix or suffix)