Threaded

How to spell threaded

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce threaded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does threaded mean?

1. verbPassed a thread, wire, or narrow object through an opening, or moved carefully through a tight space.
2. adjectiveHaving a helical ridge cut into it, as on a screw or bolt.

Threaded in a sentence

• verb

  She threaded the needle before starting on the torn hem.

• adjective

  The plumber fitted a threaded joint so the pipe could be screwed in tightly.

• verb

  The driver threaded the van between the parked cars without a scratch.

• adjective

  Each threaded bolt locked firmly into the mounting plate.

Where does threaded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past form of the verb 'thread', which traces back to the Old English noun 'thræd', meaning a fine twisted filament of fibre. That noun belonged to a wider Germanic family and was built on the same root that gave us 'throw', because the original sense involved twisting or throwing fibres together to make a strand. From the noun came the verb 'to thread', first meaning to pass a thread through the eye of a needle and later extending to passing anything through a narrow opening, and to cutting a spiral ridge into metal. The spelling keeps the old 'th' opening and the silent stretch of 'ea', a vowel pairing that sounds like a short 'e' yet is written with two letters, which is the main trap in the word. The doubled handling at the end is simple: 'thread' takes a plain '-ed', giving 'threaded' with no consonant doubling because the stress and the final 'd' make doubling unnecessary.

How the word is built

• thread (a twisted filament, from Old English thræd)
• -ed (past tense / past participle and adjective suffix)