Sponsored

How to spell sponsored

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sponsored

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sponsored mean?

1. verbProvided funds or support for a person, event, or activity, often in return for advertising or recognition.
2. adjectivePaid for or supported by a commercial backer, especially advertising content.

Sponsored in a sentence

• verb

  A local bank sponsored the charity run this year.

• adjective

  The article was clearly marked as sponsored content.

• verb

  The team was sponsored by a software company throughout the season.

• adjective

  Readers often skip past the sponsored links at the top of search results.

Where does sponsored come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb spondere, which meant to promise solemnly or to pledge. From it came the noun sponsor, literally a person who makes a pledge or stands surety for another, and in early Christian use a godparent who vowed on a child's behalf at baptism. English adopted sponsor in the 1650s, and the verb sense, meaning to back or fund something in return for promotion, grew much later as commerce and broadcasting expanded. The same spondere root sur}also produced respond (to promise back) and even spouse (one who is pledged in marriage), so the idea of a binding promise runs quietly through all of them. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle and ending: the soft -sor- before the final -ed often tempts writers toward -er, but the agent ending here is -or.

How the word is built

• spons- (from Latin spondere: to promise, pledge)
• -or (one who does)
• -ed (past tense / adjective)