Powdered

How to spell powdered

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce powdered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does powdered mean?

1. adjectiveGround or processed into fine, dry particles.
2. verbPast tense of powder: covered or dusted something with a fine substance.

Powdered in a sentence

• adjective

  The recipe calls for two spoons of powdered sugar.

• verb

  She powdered her nose before the interview began.

• adjective

  Campers often rely on powdered milk because it keeps for months.

• verb

  The baker powdered the cake with a light layer of icing sugar.

Where does powdered come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on the noun 'powder', which English took from the Old French 'poudre' around the 1200s, meaning fine dust or ground particles. That French word descended in turn from the Latin 'pulvis', with the stem 'pulver-', literally meaning 'dust', the same root that still lives inside 'pulverise' and 'pulverulent'. The verb 'to powder', meaning to reduce something to fine grains or to sprinkle it over a surface, developed soon after the noun arrived, and 'powdered' is simply its past form and the adjective drawn from it. The silent 'w' in the spelling is a relic of how the Anglo-Norman spelling settled into English, since the sound itself blurs into the vowel. Worth remembering is that the French 'd' and the English 'w' have travelled together for eight centuries, even though most speakers say it as a quick two-syllable 'pow-derd'.

How the word is built

• powder (from Old French poudre, dust)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)