Unfolded

How to spell unfolded

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unfolded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unfolded mean?

1. verbOpened out or spread flat something that had been folded or wrapped.
2. verbGradually developed or became revealed, as events or a situation do over time.

Unfolded in a sentence

• She unfolded the map across the kitchen table to plan the route.

• The scandal unfolded slowly over several weeks of reporting.

• He carefully unfolded the letter and read it twice.

• The negotiations unfolded exactly as the analysts had predicted.

Where does unfolded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of 'unfold', a thoroughly native English word. It joins the prefix 'un-', meaning to reverse or undo an action, to the Old English verb 'fealdan', which meant to bend cloth or material over on itself. By the medieval period the verb 'unfolden' described the literal act of opening out something that had been creased or wrapped, such as a letter or a garment. From there the meaning stretched naturally to the figurative sense of a story, plan, or set of events gradually revealing itself, much as cloth spreads when smoothed flat. Because the spelling is simply the transparent stack of 'un' plus 'fold' plus 'ed', the only mild trap is remembering it is one solid word with a single 'l', not 'unfollded'.

How the word is built

• un- (reverse, undo)
• fold (Old English fealdan: to bend over on itself)
• -ed (past tense suffix)