Signed

How to spell signed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce signed

What does signed mean?

1. verbWrote one's name on a document to show agreement or authorisation, or formally arranged something by doing so.

Signed in a sentence

• She signed the rental agreement before collecting the keys.

• The club signed two new players during the transfer window.

Where does signed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word sign comes from the Latin signum, which meant a mark, a token, or a military standard, the kind of emblem a Roman legion carried into battle. It travelled into English through Old French signe during the 1200s, first describing a gesture or a visible mark and later the act of writing one's name as a mark of agreement. The past form signed simply adds the regular -ed ending to that root. The spelling keeps a silent g that no longer matches the pronunciation, a relic of the Latin signum that still surfaces audibly in relatives such as signal, signature, and signify. That silent g is exactly the letter writers tend to drop, since the word sounds like it could be spelled without it.

How the word is built

• sign (from Latin signum: a mark)
• -ed (past tense suffix)