Revealed

How to spell revealed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce revealed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does revealed mean?

1. verbMade something previously hidden, secret, or unknown become visible or known.

Revealed in a sentence

• The audit revealed several discrepancies in the accounts.

• She finally revealed the name of the buyer to her colleagues.

Where does revealed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb revelare, which literally meant 'to unveil' or 'to draw back the veil'. It was built from the prefix re- (here meaning 'back' or reversal) and velum, the Latin noun for a 'veil' or 'covering', the same root that gives us the modern word 'veil' itself. The sense developed naturally from the physical act of pulling a covering aside to the figurative idea of making hidden truths visible. English borrowed it through Old French reveler in the late 1300s, often in religious contexts about divine truths being disclosed to people. The buried 'veal' spelling, which has nothing to do with meat, simply preserves that old velum root, and the doubled meaning of the final '-ed' (past tense and the silent vowel before it) is what occasionally trips writers up.

How the word is built

• re- (back, un-)
• veal (from Latin velum: veil, covering)
• -ed (past tense suffix)