Trapped

How to spell trapped

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce trapped

What does trapped mean?

1. verbCaught or confined so that escape is impossible, or cornered with no way out.

Trapped in a sentence

• The miners were trapped underground for three days before the rescue.

• She felt trapped in a job that offered no chance of promotion.

Where does trapped come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'trap', which descends from Old English 'treppe' or 'træppe', a word for a snare or device set to catch animals. The same Germanic root sits behind related words in Dutch and German for steps or stairs, the underlying idea being something you tread on or step into unawares. Over the centuries the noun gave rise to a verb meaning 'to catch in a trap', and from there to the broader senses of confining, cornering, or being stuck. The spelling trap follows the standard English rule that a single short vowel before a final consonant doubles that consonant when an ending is added, which is why 'trap' becomes 'trapped' rather than 'traped'. That doubled p is the only real spelling point to remember, and it mirrors the same pattern in 'stopped' and 'wrapped'.

How the word is built

• trap (snare, to catch)
• -ped (doubled p
• -ed, past tense/participle)