Purported

How to spell purported

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce purported

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does purported mean?

1. adjectiveClaimed or reputed to be something, without that claim being proven.
2. verbClaimed or professed to be or do something, often falsely.

Purported in a sentence

• adjective

  The purported author of the leaked memo has denied writing it.

• verb

  The email purported to come from the bank, but it was a scam.

• adjective

  Investigators questioned the purported value of the antique vase.

• verb

  She purported to hold a medical degree that she had never earned.

Where does purported come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the verb 'purport', which English took from Anglo-French and Old French 'purporter', meaning 'to convey' or 'to carry the sense of'. That French verb was built from 'pur-', a form of the Latin prefix 'pro-' meaning 'forth' or 'forward', joined to 'porter', from the Latin 'portare', meaning 'to carry'. So at its root the idea is of a document or statement carrying a meaning forward, conveying what it claims to be. By the early seventeenth century English speakers were using 'purport' to mean 'to profess or claim', often with a hint that the claim may not be true, and the participle 'purported' settled into the sense of 'alleged' or 'supposed'. The 'port' that means 'carry' is the same root found in 'transport', 'export', and 'portable', which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle of the word is spelled p-o-r-t, not p-o-r-d.

How the word is built

• pur- (variant of pro-: forth, forward)
• port (from Latin portare: to carry)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)