Warranted

How to spell warranted

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce warranted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does warranted mean?

1. adjectiveJustified, reasonable, or called for by the circumstances.
2. verbGuaranteed something to be true, or provided sufficient grounds for an action.

Warranted in a sentence

• adjective

  The manager felt that a full refund was warranted after the long delay.

• verb

  The dealer warranted that the engine had never been repaired.

• adjective

  Such a harsh penalty hardly seemed warranted for a first offence.

• verb

  The seriousness of the complaint warranted a full investigation.

Where does warranted come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the noun and verb 'warrant', which English took from Old North French 'warant', meaning a protector, a defender, or a pledge of security. That Frankish-rooted word goes back to a Germanic base related to 'waron', meaning to guard or watch over, and it is a close cousin of the word 'guarantee', which entered English later through a more central French dialect where the same Germanic 'w' had shifted to a 'g'. So 'warrant' and 'guarantee' are essentially the same word wearing two different costumes, one keeping the older 'w' spelling and the other the 'gu'. By the time the form appeared in Middle English in the 1200s and 1300s it carried senses of protecting, justifying, and giving assurance, and the past form 'warranted' came to mean both 'guaranteed' and 'justified or shown to be reasonable'. The doubled 'r' and the unstressed final '-ranted', which sounds like a soft schwa, are the parts that trip writers, since the ear gives little help with the second 'r' or the swallowed middle vowel.

How the word is built

• warrant (from Old North French warant: a guarantee, protector)
• -ed (past tense / past participle / adjective suffix)