Punched

How to spell punched

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce punched

What does punched mean?

1. verbStruck someone or something hard with a closed fist.
2. verbMade a hole in something using a tool or device.

Punched in a sentence

• The boxer punched his opponent squarely on the jaw.

• The clerk punched a neat row of holes along the edge of the ticket.

• Frustrated by the news, he punched the wall and bruised his knuckles.

• He punched his time card the moment his shift began.

Where does punched come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word 'punch' traces back to the Latin verb pungere, meaning 'to prick' or 'to pierce', the same root that gives us 'puncture' and 'point'. It reached English through Old French ponchonner and poinçonner, 'to stamp or pierce', and the earliest English sense of punch was literally to bore a hole or drive a tool through something. The 'strike with the fist' meaning grew up alongside this, probably reinforced by the older verb 'pounce' and by the image of a sharp jab; both ideas share the notion of a forceful, concentrated blow. The past tense is formed regularly by adding -ed, and the spelling trap lies in keeping the full 'ch' before the ending, since the word sounds as though it could be written 'puncht'. Knowing that the core stays 'punch', and only the tidy -ed is bolted on, keeps the spelling on track.

How the word is built

• punch (root: to strike or pierce)
• -ed (past tense suffix)