Puddle

How to spell puddle

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce puddle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does puddle mean?

1. nounA small shallow pool of liquid, especially rainwater lying on the ground.

Puddle in a sentence

• A deep puddle had formed in the pothole outside the office.

• The toddler stamped in every puddle on the way to nursery.

Where does puddle come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Puddle comes from the Middle English podel or puddel, a diminutive built on the Old English word pudd, which meant a ditch or a furrow in the ground. The little ending -le softened the sense from a man-made trench to a small natural pool, so a puddle was literally a 'little ditch' of standing water. The word is purely native Germanic in origin and has no Latin or French detour, which is why it stays short and blunt. It has kept the same homely meaning for centuries: a shallow patch of water, usually rainwater, lying on a road or field. The doubled d is the only real spelling point, and it survives directly from that original pudd root, so picturing the old ditch helps fix the two d's in mind.

How the word is built

• pudd (Old English pudd: ditch, furrow)
• -le (diminutive suffix)