Topped

How to spell topped

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce topped

What does topped mean?

1. verbPast tense of 'top': to have exceeded, surpassed, or risen above a level or figure.
2. verbPast tense of 'top': to have finished or covered something by adding a layer on top.

Topped in a sentence

• The repair bill topped four hundred pounds this month.

• She topped the cake with fresh cream and berries.

• Her final score topped everyone else in the class.

• The chef topped each plate with a sprig of parsley.

Where does topped come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'top', which grew directly out of the Old English noun 'topp', meaning the highest point, summit, or crest of something. That noun belonged to a wider Germanic family, with close relatives surviving in Dutch 'top' and German 'Zopf', and it originally referred to a tuft or crown at the very peak of an object. By the late medieval period English speakers had turned the noun into a verb, first in the sense of putting something on the top or reaching the top, and later in the sense of surpassing or exceeding. The past tense doubles the final 'p' because 'top' ends in a single consonant after a short stressed vowel, the same rule that gives us 'stopped' and 'shopped'. That doubling, rather than any change of vowel, is the only spelling point worth watching here.

How the word is built

• top (highest part, summit)
• -p- (consonant doubled after a short stressed vowel)
• -ed (past tense/participle)