Welcomed

How to spell welcomed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce welcomed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does welcomed mean?

1. verbGreeted someone or something in a glad and friendly way, or received a thing with pleasure.

Welcomed in a sentence

• The staff welcomed every guest at the front desk with a warm smile.

• The whole team welcomed the decision to extend the deadline.

Where does welcomed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English noun wilcuma, which named a person whose arrival was wished for, in other words a wanted guest. It was built from wil, meaning 'pleasure' or 'desire' (the same element that survives in 'will'), joined to cuma, meaning 'a comer' or 'one who arrives'. Over time the first part was reshaped by folk association with the everyday word 'well', so what once meant 'a desired guest' came to be heard as 'well come', a friendly greeting of good arrival. The verb sense, meaning to greet someone gladly, grew out of this, and the past tense 'welcomed' simply adds the regular -ed ending. The single l in the modern spelling is the chief trap, since the reshaping toward 'well' tempts many writers to double it.

How the word is built

• wel- (from Old English wil-: pleasing, desired)
• come (a comer, a guest)
• -ed (past tense suffix)