Popped

How to spell popped

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce popped

What does popped mean?

1. verbPast tense of pop: burst with a short sharp sound, or moved or appeared quickly and suddenly.

Popped in a sentence

• The balloon popped the moment it touched the candle.

• She popped the cork and poured the celebratory drink.

Where does popped come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The verb 'pop' is recorded in Middle English from around the 1400s and is imitative in origin, meaning it was coined to echo the short, sharp sound of something bursting or striking lightly. Because it began as an echo of a noise rather than a borrowing from another language, it never had a fixed classical root; English simply spelled the sound it heard. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from the burst itself to any quick, abrupt movement, so things could 'pop' open, 'pop' out, or someone could 'pop' to the shops. The past tense 'popped' follows the standard English rule that a single short vowel before a final consonant doubles that consonant when -ed is added, which is exactly why it is spelled with two p's rather than one. That doubling rule, shared with words like 'stopped' and 'shopped', is the small trap that makes writers hesitate over a word they otherwise say without a second thought.

How the word is built

• pop (burst/move quickly)
• -ed (past tense suffix, with doubled p)