Vaulted

How to spell vaulted

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vaulted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vaulted mean?

1. adjectiveBuilt or roofed with one or more arches forming a curved ceiling.
2. verbJumped over an obstacle, often using the hands or a pole for support.

Vaulted in a sentence

• adjective

  The cathedral's vaulted ceiling drew the eye upward.

• verb

  She vaulted over the fence to chase the runaway dog.

• adjective

  The wine cellar was a cool, vaulted chamber beneath the house.

• verb

  The gymnast vaulted across the wooden horse with ease.

Where does vaulted come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Latin volvere, meaning 'to roll' or 'to turn', from which the noun for a rolled or arched structure developed in Vulgar Latin as volta, literally 'a turn' or 'a curve'. This passed into Old French as voute or volte, naming an arched roof, and English borrowed it in the 1300s as 'vault' for a curved stone ceiling. The same root for turning also gave 'vault' the sense of leaping, since to vault is to swing the body up and over, and that meaning blossomed in the 1500s. The form 'vaulted' simply adds the regular -ed ending, serving both as the past tense of the verb and as an adjective describing a space built with arches. The silent connection to volvere also surfaces in relatives like 'revolve' and 'convolve', a handy reminder that the heart of the word is the idea of turning or curving.

How the word is built

• vault (an arched structure; or to leap)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)