Perched

How to spell perched

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce perched

What does perched mean?

1. verbSettled or rested on a raised bar, edge, or other high position.

Perched in a sentence

• The cat perched on the windowsill and watched the birds outside.

• The small cottage perched on the edge of the cliff for over a century.

Where does perched come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'perch', which traces back to the Latin noun pertica, meaning a long pole, rod, or measuring stick. The word travelled into English through Old French perche, where it named both a pole and a fixed length of land used for measuring. In English the noun came to mean the bar or branch on which a bird settles to rest, and from that concrete image a verb developed: to perch was to settle or roost on such a bar. By extension the verb soon described anything resting on a high or precarious spot, such as a house perched on a clifftop. The spelling keeps the simple -ch ending of the root, and the only mild trap is remembering that the past tense just adds -ed without any doubling, so it stays 'perched' rather than 'perchd' or 'perchhed'.

How the word is built

• perch (a pole, rod, or resting place for a bird)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)