Projected

How to spell projected

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce projected

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does projected mean?

1. verbEstimated or forecast a future figure or outcome based on current data.
2. verbCast light or an image onto a surface using a beam or device.
3. verbThrew something forward, or made the voice carry clearly to a distance.

Projected in a sentence

• The finance team projected a sharp rise in costs for next year.

• The technician projected the slides onto the conference wall.

• The actor projected her voice so the back rows could hear every word.

• Analysts projected steady growth across the whole region.

• The cinema projected the film onto a vast curved screen.

• The narrow ledge projected out over the rocks below.

Where does projected come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense and past participle of 'project', which traces back to the Latin verb proicere, meaning 'to throw forward', built from pro- 'forward' and iacere 'to throw'. Its past participle was proiectus, and Latin writers used it for things literally cast out or thrown ahead. English took the word up in the fifteenth century, at first for physical things that jutted out, and later in the abstract sense of forming a plan one 'throws forward' in the mind. From there grew the modern meanings of casting an image onto a surface, estimating future figures, and making one's voice carry. The same iacere root, meaning 'to throw', also gives us 'eject', 'inject', and 'reject', and the buried 'ject' (not 'jeck') is exactly the spelling point that catches people who write the word by ear.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• -ject- (from Latin jacere: to throw)
• -ed (past-tense/participle suffix)