Settled

How to spell settled

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce settled

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does settled mean?

1. verbPast tense of settle: brought a matter, dispute, or debt to a final conclusion.
2. verbPast tense of settle: moved to a place and made it a permanent home.
3. adjectiveCalm, stable, and free from disturbance or change.

Settled in a sentence

• verb

  The two companies settled the lawsuit out of court.

• verb

  After years of travelling, they settled in a quiet coastal town.

• adjective

  The forecast promised a week of settled weather over the holidays.

• verb

  She finally settled the outstanding invoice last week.

• verb

  His grandparents settled near the river when they first arrived.

• adjective

  After the move she finally felt settled in her new job.

Where does settled come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb setlan, meaning 'to seat, place, or bring to rest', which was formed from setl, a noun for a seat or place to sit. That noun belongs to the same broad Germanic family as 'sit' and 'set', all of which carry the underlying idea of putting something down into a fixed position. Over the centuries the verb 'settle' branched out from the literal act of seating into a wide range of figurative senses: to make calm, to take up permanent residence, to colonise land, and to bring a dispute or a debt to a final resolution. The form 'settled' is simply the regular past tense and past participle, and the spelling trap lies in the doubled t and the unstressed second syllable, where the 'le' is barely voiced. Because 'set' sits visibly at its heart, remembering the double t is the key to spelling it correctly.

How the word is built

• settle (to set in place, come to rest)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)