Suspended

How to spell suspended

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce suspended

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suspended mean?

1. verbStopped, paused, or put on hold for a period of time rather than permanently.
2. verbOfficially prevented from working, playing, or attending for a set period as a penalty.
3. verbHanging or held in place from a point above, without touching the ground.

Suspended in a sentence

• The meeting was suspended until the missing report could be found.

• The player was suspended for three matches after the foul.

• The heavy lamp was suspended from a hook in the ceiling.

• All train services were suspended during the storm.

• The employee was suspended on full pay while the inquiry continued.

• The walkway was suspended between the two towers by steel cables.

Where does suspended come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb suspendere, which combined sus-, a reduced form of sub- meaning 'up from below', with pendere, meaning 'to hang'. The literal sense was therefore to hang something up so that it dangles freely, and from that physical picture grew the figurative ideas of holding something in mid-air, leaving it unresolved, or stopping it for a time. English took the verb in through Old French suspendre during the 1300s, originally in church contexts where a person could be 'suspended' from office. The same pendere root quietly survives in a whole family of relatives such as 'pendant', 'pending', and 'pendulum', all of which involve something hanging or waiting. Because the spelling keeps the straightforward pend at its heart, the word is far less of a trap than it first looks.

How the word is built

• sus- (variant of sub-: up from under)
• pend (from Latin pendere: to hang)
• -ed (past tense / participle suffix)