Streamlined

How to spell streamlined

11 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce streamlined

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does streamlined mean?

1. adjectiveDesigned with a smooth, efficient shape or organised to remove waste and work more effectively.
2. verbReorganised something so that it works more simply and efficiently.

Streamlined in a sentence

• adjective

  The sports car has a streamlined body that cuts through the wind.

• verb

  The council streamlined its planning procedures to handle more applications.

• adjective

  The firm introduced a streamlined approval process to cut delays.

• verb

  Last year the team streamlined the entire onboarding process for new staff.

Where does streamlined come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the much older native English word 'stream', an Old English term for flowing water that goes back to Germanic roots meaning a current or flow. In the nineteenth century engineers paired it with 'line' to coin 'streamline', the smooth path a fluid traces as it flows past an object without turbulence. From that came 'streamlined', describing a shape designed to slip through air or water with the least possible resistance, a sense that became wildly fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s as trains, cars, and aircraft adopted sleek tapered bodies. By the mid twentieth century the meaning had stretched figuratively to any process trimmed of waste and made more efficient. The spelling is reassuringly transparent once you see its two everyday parts, 'stream' plus 'line', joined and given the -ed ending.

How the word is built

• stream (flowing water)
• line (linear contour)
• -ed (adjective/past-tense suffix)