Reunited

How to spell reunited

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce reunited

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reunited mean?

1. verbBrought back together after a period of separation.

Reunited in a sentence

• The family was reunited at the airport after years apart.

• The lost dog was reunited with its grateful owner within a week.

Where does reunited come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of 'reunite', which is simply the prefix 're-', meaning 'again' or 'back', attached to the verb 'unite'. 'Unite' came into English in the late 1400s from the Late Latin unitus, the past participle of unire, which meant 'to join together' or 'to make one'. That verb was built directly on the Latin unus, meaning 'one', the same root that gives us 'union', 'unity', and 'universe'. So at its heart 'reunited' literally describes things being made one again, brought back into a single whole after being parted. The spelling keeps the clean seam between 're' and 'unite', which is why the trickiest moment is simply remembering the silent flow of 'eu' in the middle.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• unite (from Latin unus: one)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)