Stacked

How to spell stacked

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stacked

What does stacked mean?

1. verbArranged or piled objects one on top of another, or in an organised heap.
2. adjectiveFilled, loaded, or arranged in piles, or (of odds or a situation) unfairly weighted.

Stacked in a sentence

• verb

  The warehouse staff stacked the boxes neatly against the back wall.

• adjective

  The shelves were fully stacked with fresh stock before opening.

• verb

  She stacked the clean plates inside the kitchen cupboard.

• adjective

  The odds felt stacked against the smaller team from the start.

Where does stacked come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word comes from Old Norse stakkr, meaning a haystack or a heap of grain, which entered northern English dialects through Scandinavian settlers during the Viking age. By the 1300s 'stack' was an English noun for an orderly pile, and a verb meaning 'to heap up' followed soon after. The form 'stacked' is simply that verb with the regular past tense ending -ed, and because the root ends in a hard 'k' sound, the -ed is pronounced as a crisp 't', which is the only mild spelling snag: you still write -ed even though you hear 't'. Over time the word gained figurative uses, such as cards or odds being 'stacked' unfairly, all tracing back to the simple idea of one thing piled on another.

How the word is built

• stack (pile)
• -ed (past tense / past participle)