Redevelopment

How to spell redevelopment

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce redevelopment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does redevelopment mean?

1. nounThe process of building or improving an area, site, or property again, usually to a better or more modern standard.

Redevelopment in a sentence

• The council approved the redevelopment of the old docklands into housing.

• Funding for the town centre redevelopment has finally been secured.

Where does redevelopment come from?

Language of origin: French

This word builds on develop, which English took in the 1600s from the French developper, meaning 'to unwrap' or 'unfold'. That French verb paired the prefix des- (expressing reversal or undoing) with voloper, an old word meaning 'to wrap up', so to develop literally meant to take something out of its wrapping and let it unfold. From the idea of unfolding came the figurative sense of growing, expanding, or building something out fully, which is why we now speak of developing land, skills, or photographs. The prefix re- (meaning 'again') and the noun suffix -ment (turning a verb into the name of a process or its result) were added in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to name the act of developing something a second time, especially the rebuilding of run-down urban areas. The chain of small pieces, re plus de plus velop plus ment, is exactly why writers second-guess the single l and the unstressed middle vowels of this long word.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• de- (reversal/un-)
• velop (from Old French voloper: to wrap, fold)
• -ment (noun suffix forming a result or process)