Remove

How to spell remove

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce remove

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does remove mean?

1. verbTo take something away from its place, or to get rid of it.

Remove in a sentence

• Please remove your shoes before entering the house.

• A good detergent will remove most stains from cotton.

Where does remove come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Remove travelled into English in the 1300s from the Old French verb removoir, which itself descended from the Latin removere. That Latin word was built from the prefix re-, meaning 'back' or 'away', and movere, meaning 'to move' or 'to set in motion'. So at its root the word literally means 'to move away', and the same movere supplies a whole family of English relatives, including 'motion', 'motor', and 'mobile'. The spelling is mercifully regular: a clear re- prefix joined to the familiar word 'move', with the silent final e that English keeps on most -ove verbs. Over the centuries the sense broadened from physically shifting an object to the more abstract ideas of getting rid of something or dismissing a person from a post.

How the word is built

• re- (back, away)
• move (to shift or change position, from Latin movere)