Warped

How to spell warped

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce warped

What does warped mean?

1. adjectiveTwisted or bent out of its proper flat or straight shape, usually by heat, damp, or age.
2. adjectiveDistorted away from what is normal, fair, or healthy, especially of a mind, sense of humour, or judgement.
3. verbPast tense of warp: bent, twisted, or distorted something out of its true shape or course.

Warped in a sentence

• adjective

  The damp had left the wooden floorboards badly warped.

• adjective

  He had a warped sense of humour that unsettled his colleagues.

• verb

  The intense heat warped the metal panels on the roof.

• adjective

  A warped vinyl record will not sit flat on the turntable.

• adjective

  Years of bitterness gave her a warped view of other people's motives.

• verb

  Prolonged sunlight warped the plastic casing of the radio.

Where does warped come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word comes from the Old English verb weorpan, which originally meant 'to throw' or 'to cast', and is closely related to similar verbs across the older Germanic languages. Over time the sense narrowed from throwing an object to the idea of something being thrown or twisted out of its true line, especially wood that bends and buckles as it dries. By the late medieval period 'warp' described timber, boards, or records losing their flat shape, and the past form 'warped' settled into use both literally and figuratively. The figurative sense, a mind or judgement that has been bent away from what is healthy or fair, grew naturally from the image of a once-straight thing twisted out of true. Because the spelling preserves the simple root plus -ed, the only real trap is remembering the single p and the plain -ed ending rather than any doubling.

How the word is built

• warp (from Old English weorpan: to throw, to bend)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)