Removed

How to spell removed

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce removed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does removed mean?

1. verbTook something away from a place or position, or got rid of it.
2. adjectiveDistant or separated, in space, attitude, or family relationship.

Removed in a sentence

• verb

  The cleaners removed every box from the office before lunch.

• adjective

  His calm manner felt strangely removed from the chaos around him.

• verb

  She removed her name from the mailing list last week.

• adjective

  She is a cousin twice removed on her mother's side.

Where does removed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of the verb 'remove', which English took from the Old French verb 'remouvoir' in the 1300s. That French word descended directly from the Latin 'removere', a compound of the prefix 're-', meaning 'back' or 'away', and the verb 'movere', meaning 'to move'. So at its literal root the word simply means 'to move away', and that sense survives whenever you take something off, out, or elsewhere. The same 'movere' root gives English a whole family of relatives, including 'move', 'motion', 'remote', and 'motor'. As an adjective, 'removed' developed the figurative sense of being distant or separated, as in a cousin 'once removed', where the distance is one of generations rather than physical space. The spelling is regular: the silent final 'e' of 'remove' drops before the '-ed' ending, leaving 'removed'.

How the word is built

• re- (back, away)
• mov(e) (from Latin movere, to move)
• -ed (past-tense/adjective suffix)