Reset

How to spell reset

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reset

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reset mean?

1. verbTo set something again or return it to its original or default state.
2. nounAn act of returning a system or situation to a starting or original state.

Reset in a sentence

• verb

  You can reset the router by holding the small button for ten seconds.

• noun

  The new manager promised a complete reset of the department's priorities.

• verb

  The engineer had to reset the alarm after the false trigger.

• noun

  A quick reset cleared the error and the screen returned to normal.

Where does reset come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a straightforward compound built inside English from the prefix 're-', which comes from Latin and means 'again' or 'back', and the native verb 'set', which traces to Old English 'settan', meaning 'to cause to sit' or 'to place'. The verb 'set' is one of the oldest and most flexible words in English, with hundreds of recorded senses, so attaching 're-' to it simply produced the idea of putting something back into position or starting it afresh. 'Reset' appears in English from around the 1600s in the literal sense of setting a thing again, such as resetting a broken bone or a gemstone in jewellery. In the twentieth century it gained its now dominant technical meaning of returning a machine, clock, or system to a starting state, and the digital age made it everyday vocabulary. The spelling is mercifully regular: it is just 're' plus 'set', so the only thing to remember is that the 't' is not doubled in the base form even though it doubles in 'resetting'.

How the word is built

• re- (again, back)
• set (to put in place)