Stuffed

How to spell stuffed

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stuffed

What does stuffed mean?

1. verbPast tense of stuff: packed or crammed something tightly into a space.
2. adjectiveFilled completely, or feeling unpleasantly full after eating.

Stuffed in a sentence

• verb

  She stuffed the suitcase until the zip would barely close.

• adjective

  After the three-course meal she felt completely stuffed.

• verb

  He stuffed his pockets with loose change before leaving.

• adjective

  The children clutched their stuffed toy bears on the journey.

Where does stuffed come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past form of the verb 'stuff', which traces back to the Old French 'estoffer', meaning 'to equip, furnish, or fill out', and ultimately to a late Latin source related to 'stuppa', a word for the coarse fibre or tow used as padding and packing. English took 'stuff' as a noun in the 1300s for material or supplies, and the verb sense of cramming a container full followed soon after. The '-ed' ending is simply the regular English past and participle marker, so the spelling is wholly transparent once the base 'stuff' is fixed in mind. The double 'f' of 'stuff' carries straight through, which is the only point a writer needs to remember. A distant cousin in the same family is 'stuffing', the bread mixture packed inside a roast bird.

How the word is built

• stuff (material, to fill)
• -ed (past tense / past participle / adjective suffix)