Pronounced

How to spell pronounced

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pronounced

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pronounced mean?

1. adjectiveVery noticeable, strong, or clearly evident.
2. verbPast tense of pronounce: declared formally, or articulated a word in speech.

Pronounced in a sentence

• adjective

  The medicine produced a pronounced improvement in her sleep.

• verb

  The doctor pronounced the patient fit to return to work.

• adjective

  There was a pronounced limp in his walk after the injury.

• verb

  She pronounced each foreign name slowly so the audience could follow.

Where does pronounced come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb pronuntiare, which meant 'to proclaim, recite, or announce publicly', formed from pro- ('forth, out') and nuntiare ('to report or make known'), itself rooted in nuntius, a 'messenger'. English took it through Old French pronuncier in the 1300s, when it first meant to declare something formally, as a judge pronouncing a sentence. From the idea of speaking words aloud came the familiar sense of articulating the sounds of a word, and by the 1700s the past participle had also developed the figurative sense of something 'strongly marked' or 'clearly evident', as if it had been emphatically declared. The same nuntius 'messenger' root survives in relatives such as 'announce', 'denounce', and 'nuncio'. A useful spelling note: the 'noun' inside pronounced echoes the older Latin 'nounce', so the word keeps its silent flow of vowels around that core.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, publicly)
• nounce (from Latin nuntiare: to announce, report)
• -ed (past/adjective suffix)