Sustained

How to spell sustained

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sustained

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sustained mean?

1. adjectiveContinuing steadily over an extended period without interruption.
2. verbPast tense of sustain: kept something going, supported it, or suffered it.

Sustained in a sentence

• adjective

  The company reported sustained growth over five consecutive quarters.

• verb

  The bridge sustained the weight of the heavy lorries for decades.

• adjective

  A sustained effort from the whole team finally cleared the backlog.

• verb

  She sustained a minor injury during the marathon but finished the race.

Where does sustained come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb sustinere, which literally meant 'to hold up' or 'to bear', formed from sub, here carrying the sense 'up from below', joined to tenere, 'to hold'. The same tenere root quietly underpins a whole family of English words, including contain, retain, and tenant, all of them about holding in one way or another. English took the verb sustain through Old French sostenir during the 1300s, originally with the idea of supporting, propping up, or keeping something going. The past-tense and adjectival form sustained developed naturally, settling on the meaning of something kept up steadily over time. The spelling trap is the unstressed first syllable, which sounds like 'suh' and tempts writers toward 'sus', though the historical sub origin is hidden, and the silent shape of -tain echoes its many tenere cousins.

How the word is built

• sus- (variant of sub-: up from below)
• tain (from Latin tenere: to hold)
• -ed (past-tense and adjective suffix)