Protected

How to spell protected

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce protected

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does protected mean?

1. verbPast tense of protect: kept safe from harm, loss, or attack.
2. adjectiveKept safe by law, rules, or physical means from harm or interference.

Protected in a sentence

• verb

  The firewall protected the network from outside intruders all night.

• adjective

  The badger is a protected species and cannot be disturbed.

• verb

  Thick insurance cover protected the family from sudden medical costs.

• adjective

  Customers must enter their password on a protected web page.

Where does protected come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb protegere, which combined the prefix pro-, meaning 'in front of' or 'on behalf of', with the verb tegere, meaning 'to cover'. So to protect something was quite literally to cover it from the front, to shield it from harm. English took the verb 'protect' from Latin in the fifteenth century, often via the Latin past participle protectus, and 'protected' is its regular past and participial form built with the native English -ed ending. The same tegere root quietly survives in other English words such as 'tegument' (a protective covering) and even, more distantly, 'detect' and 'integument'. Because the -tect- cluster is fully pronounced and the -ed ending is regular, the spelling rarely strays, though the single t in pro- can tempt a doubling that does not belong.

How the word is built

• pro- (in front, on behalf of)
• tect (cover, from Latin tegere)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)