Wired

How to spell wired

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wired

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wired mean?

1. adjectiveFitted with or connected by electrical wires or cabling.
2. adjectiveFeeling tense, jittery, or overstimulated, often from caffeine or stress.

Wired in a sentence

• The whole house is wired for high-speed broadband.

• After four coffees she felt completely wired and could not sit still.

• The new office is fully wired for power and network access.

• He was so wired before the interview that he paced the corridor for an hour.

Where does wired come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the noun and verb 'wire', which descends from the Old English 'wir', meaning a thin, drawn-out thread of metal. That term has solid Germanic roots and relatives in other northern languages, all pointing back to an idea of something twisted or pliable, and it is probably linked to the same ancient root that gave Latin 'viere', meaning 'to plait or weave'. The form 'wired' is simply the past participle of the verb 'to wire', and it became common once metal threads were used to carry electrical current and telegraph signals in the nineteenth century. From the literal sense of being fitted with wires came the figurative one: a person buzzing with restless energy is said to be 'wired', as if charged like a live circuit. The spelling rarely trips people up because the silent-feeling stretch from the long 'i' to the 'r' is captured tidily by the familiar 'wire' root with '-ed' added on.

How the word is built

• wire (from Old English wir: metal thread)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)