Sprung

How to spell sprung

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sprung

What does sprung mean?

1. verbPast participle of spring: to have leapt, burst forth, originated, or been released suddenly.
2. adjectiveFitted with springs, or having lost tension and become bent or warped.

Sprung in a sentence

• verb

  The trap had sprung before the technician could reset it.

• adjective

  The old armchair had a fully sprung seat that cushioned every visitor.

• verb

  A new cafe has sprung up on every corner of the high street.

• adjective

  The warped, sprung frame of the door no longer closed flush.

Where does sprung come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past participle, and in informal use the simple past, of the verb 'spring'. 'Spring' descends from the Old English strong verb 'springan', meaning 'to leap, burst forth, or rise up', which goes back to a Germanic root shared with Dutch 'springen' and German 'springen', both still meaning 'to jump'. Strong verbs like this one change their internal vowel to mark tense rather than adding an ending, so the pattern runs spring, sprang, sprung, much like sing, sang, sung. The 'u' of sprung therefore comes from an ancient vowel-shift, called ablaut, that English inherited rather than invented. Because the modern simple past 'sprang' and the participle 'sprung' look so alike, writers often hesitate over which to use, but the spelling of the bare form sprung itself is stable and phonetic.

How the word is built

• spr- (root of spring, from Germanic)
• -ung (strong-verb past participle vowel change, ablaut, from the -ang/-ung pattern)