Usual

How to spell usual

5 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce usual

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does usual mean?

1. adjectiveHappening or done most of the time; customary or expected.

Usual in a sentence

• She took her usual seat at the back of the meeting room.

• The train left at the usual time despite the heavy snow.

Where does usual come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word travels back to the Latin usualis, meaning 'ordinary' or 'in common use', which was built on usus, the noun for 'use, practice, or custom'. That noun in turn came from the verb uti, 'to make use of', the same root that gives English 'use', 'utility', and 'utensil'. Medieval Latin passed the adjective into Old French as usuel, and English adopted it in the late 1300s with the sense of something habitual or customary. The spelling trap lives in the ending: the word sounds like 'yoo-zhoo-ul', but the written form is the tidy '-ual', the same cluster seen in 'gradual' and 'manual', rather than the '-al' or '-ial' a writer might guess. Knowing the buried word 'use' inside it helps anchor the 'us' at the start.

How the word is built

• usu- (from Latin usus: use, custom)
• -al (adjective suffix: relating to)