Phased

How to spell phased

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce phased

What does phased mean?

1. verbCarried out or introduced gradually in planned stages.
2. adjectiveArranged or done in separate, successive stages rather than all at once.

Phased in a sentence

• verb

  The outdated software was phased out across all departments last year.

• adjective

  The council approved a phased return to the office over several months.

• verb

  The company phased in the new pension scheme over three quarters.

• adjective

  Management proposed a phased withdrawal of the older product line.

Where does phased come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The base word 'phase' comes from the Greek phasis, meaning 'appearance' or 'the appearance of a star', which was built on the verb phainein, 'to show' or 'to bring to light'. Astronomers first used it for the changing appearances of the moon as it waxed and waned, and English picked it up in the early 1800s through scientific Latin and French, originally spelling it 'phasis'. From the idea of distinct stages of the moon, the meaning broadened to any distinct stage in a process or development. The verb sense, 'to carry something out in planned stages', is a twentieth-century extension, giving us 'phased' for actions introduced gradually. The 'ph' spelling for the 'f' sound is the giveaway of its Greek ancestry, and it is exactly that 'ph' that keeps 'phased' distinct from its sound-alike 'fazed', which means disturbed or unsettled.

How the word is built

• phase (stage, from Greek phasis 'appearance')
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)