Vanished

How to spell vanished

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vanished

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vanished mean?

1. verbCeased to be visible or present, especially suddenly or mysteriously.

Vanished in a sentence

• The keys vanished from the drawer where she always kept them.

• The morning fog vanished as soon as the sun rose over the hills.

Where does vanished come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin verb evanescere, meaning 'to disappear' or 'to fade away into nothing', which was built from ex- 'out' and vanescere 'to vanish', itself rooted in vanus, meaning 'empty', 'void', or 'idle'. English took it through Old French, where the verb appeared as esvanir or evanir, dropping into Middle English around the 1300s as 'vanish'. The same Latin vanus also gives us 'vain', 'vanity', and 'evanescent', all carrying that core idea of emptiness or insubstantiality. The sense settled into the familiar meaning of suddenly ceasing to be visible, and the past-tense 'vanished' simply adds the regular -ed ending. Because the word grew out of vanus rather than any doubled consonant, it keeps a single n, which is worth noting since the deceptively quick sound can tempt a wrong doubling.

How the word is built

• van- (from Latin vanus: empty, void)
• -ish (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense)