Pledged

How to spell pledged

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pledged

What does pledged mean?

1. verbMade a solemn or formal promise to do, give, or commit to something.
2. verbGave something as security or collateral to guarantee a debt or obligation.

Pledged in a sentence

• The company pledged a large donation to the local hospital.

• He pledged his car against the short-term loan.

• Every member pledged to keep the agreement confidential.

• The family pledged their farmland to secure the mortgage.

Where does pledged come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word pledge entered English in the 1300s from the Old French plege, sometimes spelled pleige, meaning a person who stands as surety or the security itself given to guarantee a promise. That Old French term traces back to a Late Latin and probably Frankish (early Germanic) source plebire, meaning to guarantee or to assure. The earliest English sense was very concrete: a pledge was an object or a hostage handed over to back a vow, and only later did the word soften into the modern idea of a solemn promise. The verb sense, to bind oneself by a formal commitment, grew naturally from the noun, and the spelling kept the soft -dge ending that signals the 'j' sound after a short vowel. The form pledged simply adds the regular past tense ending, and the silent finishing of the -ge before -ed is why writers sometimes hesitate over whether to keep the e.

How the word is built

• pledge (from Old French plege: a guarantee or surety)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)