Ruptured

How to spell ruptured

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ruptured

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ruptured mean?

1. verbBroke open or burst, especially suddenly and under pressure.
2. adjectiveHaving been broken open or burst, used to describe the damaged thing itself.

Ruptured in a sentence

• verb

  The old water main ruptured during the hard freeze.

• adjective

  The surgeon repaired a ruptured appendix overnight.

• verb

  A fuel line ruptured and sprayed the engine bay.

• adjective

  The plumber replaced a ruptured section of pipe under the sink.

Where does ruptured come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb rumpere, meaning 'to break' or 'to burst', whose past participle was ruptus. From that participle Latin formed the noun ruptura, literally 'a breaking' or 'a fracture'. English took the noun and verb 'rupture' from Latin (partly by way of Old French) in the 1400s, originally describing a physical break or a hernia. The inflected form 'ruptured' simply adds the regular past-tense and adjective ending -ed to that root. The same rumpere lies behind a family of familiar relatives such as 'erupt', 'interrupt', 'disrupt', and 'corrupt', all of which carry the buried idea of breaking; spotting that shared 'rupt' element is a useful anchor for the spelling.

How the word is built

• rupt (break)
• -ure (noun-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)