Secluded

How to spell secluded

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce secluded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does secluded mean?

1. adjectiveSheltered, private, and away from other people or general view.

Secluded in a sentence

• They rented a secluded cottage at the far end of the valley.

• The hotel garden had a secluded corner perfect for reading.

Where does secluded come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb secludere, meaning 'to shut off' or 'to set apart', which combines the prefix se-, meaning 'apart' or 'aside', with claudere, the verb 'to close or shut'. The same claudere root, literally the act of shutting a door, also gives English a whole family of relatives such as 'include' (to shut in), 'exclude' (to shut out), 'conclude' (to shut up an argument), and 'close' itself. English took 'seclude' in the fifteenth century, and the participle 'secluded' settled into use as a descriptive adjective for places and people kept quietly apart from others. The literal sense of being shut away survives clearly in the modern meaning of a hidden, private spot. Remembering the claudere root is a handy spelling aid, since it explains the single c and the d that the ear can easily blur into the unstressed ending.

How the word is built

• se- (apart)
• clud (from Latin claudere: to close, shut)
• -ed (adjective/past participle suffix)