Unloaded

How to spell unloaded

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unloaded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unloaded mean?

1. verbRemoved cargo, contents, or a burden from something; past tense of unload.
2. adjectiveContaining no cargo, ammunition, or contents; emptied or not charged.

Unloaded in a sentence

• verb

  The delivery crew unloaded the van in under an hour.

• adjective

  The instructor confirmed the rifle was completely unloaded before the lesson.

• verb

  Once the cargo ship docked, dockers unloaded thousands of crates.

• adjective

  An unloaded lorry handles very differently on wet roads.

Where does unloaded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English formation built from the native verb 'load', which comes from Old English 'ladan', meaning to lade or to put cargo aboard; that verb shares a root with the noun 'lade' and the related word 'lading' still seen in the shipping phrase 'bill of lading'. The reversing prefix 'un-', also from Old English, was attached to signal the undoing of an action, so 'unload' literally means to take the burden or cargo off again. The form 'unloaded' adds the standard '-ed' ending to mark either the past tense or the adjective describing something that has had its contents removed. The verb 'unload' is recorded from the late 1500s, and the firearms sense (to remove the charge or ammunition) followed naturally as guns became common. Because every part of the word is plainly visible, the only real spelling trap is remembering the single 'd' in 'load' before the '-ed' ending.

How the word is built

• un- (reversal, undo)
• load (root: a burden or cargo)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)