Smarter

How to spell smarter

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce smarter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does smarter mean?

1. adjectiveMore intelligent, quick-witted, or shrewd than someone or something else.

Smarter in a sentence

• Her new assistant is far smarter than the last one.

• A smarter approach to the problem saved the team three days of work.

Where does smarter come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of the adjective 'smart', which traces back to the Old English verb 'smeortan', meaning 'to feel or cause a sharp, stinging pain'. From that sting came an adjective sense of 'sharp', and over the centuries the idea of sharpness moved from physical pain to a sharp, brisk manner, then to neatness of dress, and finally to mental sharpness or cleverness. The comparative is built simply by adding the regular suffix -er, the same ending that turns 'fast' into 'faster' and 'bright' into 'brighter'. Because the base word ends in a consonant after the vowel team, the spelling just gains -er with no doubling and no dropped letter, which keeps it among the more predictable words. The link to the original 'stinging' sense survives faintly in phrases about a remark that 'stings' or 'smarts'.

How the word is built

• smart (clever, sharp)
• -er (comparative suffix)