Technical

How to spell technical

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce technical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does technical mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to a particular subject, craft, or skill, or to the practical methods and machinery used in it.

Technical in a sentence

• The manual was too technical for most customers to follow.

• She joined the company to provide technical support for the new software.

Where does technical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek tekhne, meaning 'art', 'craft', or 'skill', the same root that gives us 'technique' and 'technology'. From tekhne the Greeks formed the adjective tekhnikos, meaning 'of or relating to art or craft' and, by extension, 'skilled'. Latin borrowed this as technicus, and English picked it up in the early 1600s, attaching the familiar -al ending to produce 'technical'. At first it described matters belonging to a particular art or profession, and only later widened to its modern sense of specialised knowledge, machinery, and precise procedure. The spelling keeps the Greek 'ch' rendered as a hard 'k' sound, which is the small trap: writers must remember the silent-looking 'ch' even though the ear hears a plain 'k'.

How the word is built

• techn- (from Greek tekhne: art, craft, skill)
• -ic (adjective)
• -al (adjective suffix)