Talented

How to spell talented

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce talented

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does talented mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a natural aptitude or skill for something.

Talented in a sentence

• The orchestra recruited several talented young musicians this season.

• Our new colleague is a talented negotiator who closes deals quickly.

Where does talented come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word grows from talent, which English took in the 1200s from the Latin talentum, itself borrowed from the Greek talanton, meaning 'a balance, a weight,' and by extension a large unit of money. The leap from money to natural ability comes from a famous biblical story, the Parable of the Talents, in which a master entrusts servants with sums of money and rewards those who put their portion to good use. Medieval readers reinterpreted that story so that 'talent' came to mean a God-given gift or aptitude rather than literal coin. By the early 1600s the past-participle form talented had emerged as an adjective describing someone richly endowed with such gifts. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply talent plus -ed, with a single t in the middle and no doubling.

How the word is built

• talent (natural ability, from Greek talanton: a weight or sum of money)
• -ed (adjective suffix: having)