Walled

How to spell walled

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce walled

What does walled mean?

1. adjectiveSurrounded or enclosed by a wall or walls.
2. verbPast tense of 'wall': enclosed, blocked, or separated something using a wall.

Walled in a sentence

• adjective

  The old town sits behind a walled perimeter built centuries ago.

• verb

  The builders walled off the unsafe stairwell before the inspection.

• adjective

  They bought a cottage with a walled garden at the back.

• verb

  Previous owners had walled up the original fireplace.

Where does walled come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word 'wall' comes from the Old English 'weall', meaning a rampart or defensive structure, which the Anglo-Saxons borrowed from the Latin 'vallum', a term for a line of palisades or an earthwork rampart built to protect a Roman camp. That Latin word in turn came from 'vallus', meaning a stake or post, since early defences were rows of driven stakes. Over time the meaning broadened from purely defensive barriers to the ordinary walls of houses and gardens, and the verb sense, 'to enclose or block with a wall', grew naturally from the noun. The form 'walled' simply adds the regular '-ed' ending, and because the base ends in a single vowel followed by 'l', the spelling keeps both letters, giving the doubled 'll' that some writers second-guess.

How the word is built

• wall (a solid vertical structure)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)