Wretched

How to spell wretched

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wretched

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wretched mean?

1. adjectiveIn a very unhappy or unfortunate state, or of extremely poor quality.

Wretched in a sentence

• The refugees endured wretched conditions in the overcrowded camp.

• He felt wretched after the long flight and the lost luggage.

Where does wretched come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English noun wrecca, which meant an exile, an outcast, or someone driven from their home, and which itself traced back to a Germanic verb meaning to drive, push, or pursue. The same root produced the German word Recke, meaning a warrior or hero, so the two languages drifted in opposite directions: where German kept a sense of nobility, English fixed on the misery of the banished person. From the noun wretch, meaning a deeply unfortunate or despised person, English formed the adjective wretched in the medieval period to describe the state of being miserable, pitiful, or of very poor quality. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the sound is simply 'rech-id', yet the written form keeps the silent t and the unusual -tched cluster inherited from wretch. Remembering that wretched is built straight on the noun wretch is the surest way to hold onto that awkward -tch- spelling.

How the word is built

• wretch (from Old English wrecca: an exile, outcast)
• -ed (adjective suffix)