Spied

How to spell spied

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spied

What does spied mean?

1. verbPast tense of spy: caught sight of something, often suddenly or unexpectedly.
2. verbPast tense of spy: secretly watched a person or activity to gather information.

Spied in a sentence

• She spied a familiar face in the crowded station.

• The investigator spied on the rival company for several weeks.

• He spied the missing keys under the sofa cushion.

• The neighbours felt they were being spied on through the fence.

Where does spied come from?

Language of origin: French

The verb 'spy' came into Middle English in the 1200s from the Old French 'espier', meaning 'to watch secretly' or 'to observe from hiding'. That French word was itself borrowed from a Germanic source, related to the same root that gave German 'spähen', meaning 'to watch closely', and the sense ultimately traces back to an old root meaning 'to look' or 'to peer'. English later trimmed the initial 'e' to give the familiar one-syllable 'spy'. The past tense 'spied' follows the regular English rule by which a word ending in a consonant plus 'y' swaps the 'y' for 'i' before adding '-ed', which is exactly the spelling trap here. The same espier root also lies behind the word 'espionage', borrowed much later straight from French.

How the word is built

• spy (from espier: to watch)
• -ed (past tense; y changes to i)