Processed

How to spell processed

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce processed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does processed mean?

1. verbDealt with or handled something through a set series of steps or operations.
2. adjectiveTreated or prepared by an industrial method, especially of food altered from its natural state.

Processed in a sentence

• verb

  The bank processed my refund within three working days.

• adjective

  Processed foods often contain far more salt than home cooking.

• verb

  The clerk processed all the new applications before lunch.

• adjective

  The diet plan asks you to cut back on processed meat.

Where does processed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the Latin verb procedere, meaning 'to go forward' or 'to advance', built from pro- 'forward' and cedere 'to go or move'. The noun procession of that idea, the Latin processus, described a 'going forth' or 'advance', and Old French turned it into proces, a course of events or a legal proceeding. English borrowed the noun in the 1300s, and by the 1700s it had been turned into a verb meaning 'to treat or handle by a set series of steps'. The form 'processed' is simply that verb with the past tense and past participle ending -ed, and it later hardened into an adjective for goods that have been put through industrial steps, as in processed cheese. The same cedere root, meaning 'to go', also sits inside everyday relatives like proceed, recede and exceed, which is a useful reminder that the single s in the middle of process becomes a doubled-up 'ss' rather than a 'c'.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• cess (from Latin cedere: to go, proceed)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)