Saved

How to spell saved

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce saved

What does saved mean?

1. verbKept someone or something from harm, danger, or destruction.
2. verbSet aside money rather than spending it.
3. verbStored a file or document so it can be retrieved later.

Saved in a sentence

• The lifeguard saved two swimmers caught in the current.

• She saved enough for a deposit over three years.

• He saved the spreadsheet to the shared drive before logging off.

• Prompt treatment saved the patient's leg.

• Switching providers saved them a fortune on bills.

• The app automatically saved a backup every few minutes.

Where does saved come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense and past participle of 'save', which entered English in the 1200s from the Old French 'sauver', meaning to keep safe or rescue. That French verb descends from the Late Latin 'salvare', to make safe, which was built on the Latin adjective 'salvus', meaning safe, whole, or in good health. The same Latin root gives us a whole family of relatives, including 'salvage' (rescuing goods), 'salvation', and the greeting 'salve', as well as the everyday word 'safe' itself. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from physical rescue to the idea of keeping or setting something aside, such as money or time, and in the computing age it picked up the sense of preserving a file. The spelling is straightforward: the silent final 'e' of 'save' is dropped before the '-ed' ending, leaving the simple 'saved'.

How the word is built

• save (from Latin salvare, to make safe)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)