Restore

How to spell restore

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce restore

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does restore mean?

1. verbTo bring something back to its former condition, position, or owner.

Restore in a sentence

• The museum hired experts to restore the damaged painting.

• The engineers worked through the night to restore power to the city.

Where does restore come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Restore came into English in the early 1300s from the Old French restorer, which in turn descended from the Latin restaurare, meaning 'to rebuild' or 'to renew'. That Latin verb was formed from the prefix re-, meaning 'again' or 'back', joined to a root staurare meaning roughly 'to set up' or 'to make firm', so the literal sense was to set something up once more. The very same Latin verb is the direct ancestor of 'restaurant', a place where one is restored or refreshed by food, which makes the two words memorable cousins. Over the centuries restore broadened from rebuilding physical things to giving back rights, health, order, and confidence. The spelling holds steady on the simple re- plus store pattern, so the main trap is hearing the final vowel as a schwa and second-guessing whether an extra letter belongs at the end.

How the word is built

• re- (again, back)
• store (from Latin staurare: to set up, establish)