Reversed

How to spell reversed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reversed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reversed mean?

1. verbTurned the other way round, or changed something to its opposite direction, order or decision.
2. adjectiveTurned around so that the order, position or direction is opposite to normal.

Reversed in a sentence

• verb

  The court reversed its earlier ruling after new evidence emerged.

• adjective

  The names were printed in reversed order on the form.

• verb

  She reversed the car slowly out of the narrow driveway.

• adjective

  In a reversed image the text appears as mirror writing.

Where does reversed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb vertere, meaning 'to turn', and specifically to its compound revertere, formed with the prefix re- ('back') so that it literally meant 'to turn back' or 'turn around'. The past participle reversus passed into Old French as reverser, 'to turn upside down or send back', and English took it up in the 1300s as the verb 'reverse'. The everyday past form 'reversed' simply adds the regular -ed ending. The very same vertere root turns up in a whole family of familiar words such as 'convert', 'divert', 'invert' and 'version', all of which involve some kind of turning. Knowing that vers means 'turn' helps explain the single s in the middle: it is the Latin stem vers-, not a doubled or softened sound.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• vers (turn, from Latin vertere)
• -ed (past-tense/participle suffix)