Peaked

How to spell peaked

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce peaked

What does peaked mean?

1. verbReached the highest point or maximum level before declining.
2. adjectiveHaving a projecting front brim, as on a cap or hat.
3. adjectiveLooking pale, drawn, and unwell.

Peaked in a sentence

• verb

  Retail sales peaked in December and then dropped through January.

• adjective

  The station guard wore a smart peaked cap with a polished badge.

• adjective

  She looked pale and peaked after a fortnight in hospital.

• verb

  The flood waters peaked around midnight and slowly began to recede.

• adjective

  The chauffeur straightened his peaked cap before opening the door.

• adjective

  The child seemed peaked and listless by the end of the long journey.

Where does peaked come from?

Language of origin: Other

The base word 'peak' appears in English in the 1500s and is closely tied to 'pike', the long pointed weapon, and to 'pic', an older word for a pointed tip or spike. Its earlier roots are not fully settled, but most accounts link it to a family of words across the Germanic and Romance languages describing something sharp or projecting, with the French 'pic' (a pointed peak or pickaxe) in the background. From the idea of a sharp summit, 'peak' came to mean the highest point of anything, whether a mountain, a graph, or a person's powers, and the verb 'to peak' (to reach that maximum) followed. The form 'peaked' simply adds the regular -ed ending, and the spelling trap is that it sounds identical to 'peeked' (glanced) and 'piqued' (aroused or irritated), so the meaning, not the sound, must guide the spelling.

How the word is built

• peak (highest point, summit)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)