Plugged

How to spell plugged

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce plugged

What does plugged mean?

1. verbBlocked up an opening, or inserted something firmly into a hole or socket.
2. verbMentioned or promoted something publicly to draw attention to it.

Plugged in a sentence

• She plugged the charger into the wall socket before bed.

• The author plugged her new book during the radio interview.

• The plumber plugged the leak before water reached the floor.

• Every guest plugged a charity they cared about on the show.

Where does plugged come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word 'plug' was borrowed into English in the late 1500s from Dutch and Low German 'plugge', which meant a peg, bung, or stopper used to seal a hole. The original sense was strictly physical: a wooden or cork piece driven into an opening to block it, as in a barrel or a wall. Over the following centuries the meaning expanded to the electrical fitting we know today (a 'plug' that fills a socket) and to figurative uses such as promoting something or filling a gap. The past-tense form 'plugged' follows the regular English pattern, but because the root ends in a single short vowel and a single consonant, the spelling doubles that final 'g' before the '-ed' ending; that doubling is the small trap that trips writers who expect a single 'g'.

How the word is built

• plug (to stop up, or insert)
• -g- (doubled consonant)
• -ed (past tense suffix)