Privileged

How to spell privileged

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce privileged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does privileged mean?

1. adjectiveEnjoying special rights, advantages, or comforts available only to a particular person or group.
2. adjectiveLegally protected from being disclosed, as with confidential communication between a lawyer and client.

Privileged in a sentence

• She grew up in a privileged household with every comfort provided.

• Those emails are privileged and cannot be shown to the opposing side.

• Only a privileged few were invited to tour the factory floor.

• The lawyer reminded her that the conversation was strictly privileged.

Where does privileged come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin privilegium, a legal term that literally meant a law affecting a single individual, formed from privus, meaning private or one's own, and lex, legis, meaning law. In Roman use a privilegium was a special statute granted to or imposed on one particular person, which is why the modern sense still carries the flavour of a special right not shared by everyone. The word travelled into English through Old French privilege during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, at first in church and legal contexts, before broadening to describe anyone enjoying a special advantage. The participle form privileged appeared as the word settled into English as both noun and verb. The spelling trap lives in the middle and end: there is no letter d before the g (it is not 'priviledge'), and the unstressed second syllable hides the i, so writers often drop or double the wrong letter.

How the word is built

• privi- (from privus: private, individual)
• leg (from lex, legis: law)
• -ed (adjective/past-participle suffix)