Words · Familiar
penned
/pɛnd/ · 6 letters · 4 distinct letters
A form of pen.
- verb
produce a literary work
She composed a poem
- noun
a writing implement with a point from which ink flows
- noun
an enclosure for confining livestock
- noun
a portable enclosure in which babies may be left to play
- noun
a correctional institution for those convicted of major crimes
- noun
female swan
Word history
History of pen
From Middle English pen, penne (“enclosure for animals”), from Old English penn (“enclosure, fold, pen”), from Proto Germanic *pennō, *pannijō (“pin, bolt, nail, tack”), from Proto Indo European *bend (“pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pin. Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to “enclosure for persons” (1845), later influenced by penitentiary (“prison”), being analyzed as an abbreviation (1884).
From Wiktionary, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0
Why this word counts
- Where it comes from
- Listed in the English Speller Database at size 35: the core list of everyday words.
- How common it is
- Used about 2 times in every million words.
- In the spelling bee
- Daily answer A standard word with a definition we can show, so it can be a daily answer.