Tired

How to spell tired

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tired

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tired mean?

1. adjectiveIn need of rest or sleep; feeling a loss of energy.
2. adjectiveHaving lost patience with something through long exposure to it.

Tired in a sentence

• After the long shift she felt completely tired.

• Voters are tired of the same broken promises.

• The children grew tired during the slow afternoon drive.

• She was tired of explaining the rules to every new hire.

Where does tired come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb teorian, which meant 'to fail, to grow weak, or to become exhausted'. The adjective tired is simply the past participle of the modern verb 'tire', and it carried the sense of someone or something whose energy has run out. The exact older roots are a little hazy, and scholars are not entirely certain how teorian connects to other Germanic words, which is unusual for such an everyday term. Over the centuries the spelling settled around the silent final 'e' of 'tire' plus the regular '-ed' ending, so the 'e' of 'tire' disappears into the suffix. In British English there is a near look-alike, 'tyred' (fitted with tyres), built on the wheel-covering 'tyre', and that overlap is the only real spelling snag.

How the word is built

• tire (verb root, from Old English teorian: to grow weary)
• -ed (adjective/past-participle suffix)