Taught

How to spell taught

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce taught

What does taught mean?

1. verbPast tense and past participle of teach: gave instruction or imparted knowledge or skill to someone.

Taught in a sentence

• She taught me how to drive.

• My mother taught me to bake.

Where does taught come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'teach', which comes from the Old English tǣcan, meaning 'to show, point out, or instruct'. That verb traces back to a Germanic root tied to the idea of pointing with the finger to show someone the way, the same root that gives us 'token' and 'teach' itself. In Old English the past tense was tǣhte, and over centuries that gh spelling froze in place even though the throaty consonant it once represented fell silent. The modern result is that 'taught' is pronounced exactly like 'taut', which is why the silent gh trips up so many writers. Remembering that 'taught' carries the same gh as 'teach' lost long ago, and that it always concerns instruction, helps keep it apart from the rope word 'taut'.

How the word is built

• past tense of teach: from Old English tǣcan, with the vowel and consonant change preserved in the spelling