Sized

How to spell sized

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sized

What does sized mean?

1. adjectiveHaving dimensions or a magnitude of a specified kind, usually as part of a compound such as medium-sized.
2. verbPast tense of size: assessed, judged, or adjusted something according to its dimensions or nature.

Sized in a sentence

• adjective

  They bought a medium sized rental car for the trip.

• verb

  The contractor sized the job in a single afternoon visit.

• adjective

  They bought a generously sized sofa to fill the lounge.

• verb

  She carefully sized the ring before placing the order.

Where does sized come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word size came into English in the 1300s from Old French sise, a clipped form of assise, which meant 'a sitting' or 'a session' and by extension 'a settled rate or assessment'. That noun grew out of the Old French verb asseoir, 'to sit down' or 'to settle', which traces back to the Latin assidere, formed from ad 'to' and sedere 'to sit'. The idea of something fixed by official settlement, such as a regulated amount of bread or cloth, gradually broadened into the general notion of measured dimensions or magnitude. The form sized is simply size with the regular -ed ending, serving either as the past tense of the verb (to size something up) or as an adjective describing a thing's dimensions, as in medium-sized. Because the root ends in a silent e and a z sound, writers sometimes hesitate over whether to keep that z, but the spelling stays faithful to its parent word size.

How the word is built

• size (dimension, from assise: a settled amount)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)