Revered

How to spell revered

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce revered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does revered mean?

1. adjectiveRegarded with deep respect, admiration, or awe.
2. verbFelt or showed deep respect and admiration for someone or something (past tense of revere).

Revered in a sentence

• adjective

  The revered surgeon trained two generations of doctors at the hospital.

• verb

  The team revered their old coach long after he retired.

• adjective

  Her grandmother kept the revered family recipe locked in a drawer.

• verb

  Throughout her career she revered the mentor who first hired her.

Where does revered come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb revereri, which meant 'to stand in awe of' or 'to hold in deep respect'. It was built from the prefix re-, here acting as an intensifier, and the verb vereri, meaning 'to fear or to feel reverence toward'. English took up the verb 'revere' in the early 1600s, largely by way of French révérer, and 'revered' is its past form, used both as a verb and as an adjective for someone or something held in the highest esteem. The same vereri root sits inside the related words 'reverence' and 'reverend', the title given to members of the clergy. A useful spelling cue is that, like those relatives, the word keeps a single 'r' after the 're-' and ends in the plain '-ered', with no doubling.

How the word is built

• re- (intensive prefix)
• vere (from Latin vereri: to hold in awe)
• -ed (past/adjective suffix)