Assaulted is the past tense or past participle of assault, meaning to have attacked someone, often with unlawful force. It denotes that the action occurred in the past and was directed at another person, with legal or informal implications depending on context. The pronunciation centers on a stressed first syllable with a secondary stress in a typical American pronunciation, followed by a clear /tɪd/ or /əd/ ending in connected speech.
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"- He assaulted the guard during the altercation, and the charges followed."
"- The defendant claimed he was assaulted and feared for his safety."
"- Several witnesses stated the suspect assaulted him, then fled the scene."
"- The report notes he assaulted the victim, resulting in injuries."
Assaulted derives from the verb assault, which itself comes from the Old French acoster meaning to approach or to set upon, in the sense of attacking. The root is Latin as-sultāre, from ad- (toward) + salīre (to leap or spring). In Middle English and early modern usage, assault referred to a sudden or bold attack, often with implications of aggression and legal offensiveness. The suffix -ed marks past tense or past participle in English, aligning with standard verb conjugation. By the 16th–17th centuries, assault began to be used in legal contexts to describe unlawful attacks or threats, eventually broadening in everyday usage to include verbal or physical aggression. Over time, pronunciation stabilized with the /səˈsɔːltɪd/ or /əˈsɔːltɪd/ patterns, depending on dialect, with variations in vowel quality and the treatment of the 'a' in the first syllable. First known written instances appear in Middle English legal texts, with modern widespread usage appearing in 19th to 20th-century legal and journalism contexts. The word reflects both a concrete physical attack sense and a broader, sometimes metaphorical, sense of aggressive behavior. In contemporary English, assaulted is common in both legal summaries and everyday reporting, with pronunciation following standard stress patterns of English past-tense verbs: primary stress on the second syllable in many varieties, though in some contexts the stress can shift in connected speech.
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Words that rhyme with "assaulted"
-ted sounds
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Pronounce as ə-SAWL-tɪd with primary stress on the second syllable. IPA: US/UK/AU: əˈsɔːltɪd. Ensure the /s/ is crisp, the /ɔːl/ is a long, rounded vowel cluster, and the /t/ is clear before the final /ɪd/ or /tɪd/ ending in slower speech. In connected speech, the ending may sound like /əd/ as /ɪd/ is reduced. Pay attention to the /ɔː/ vowel: avoid a flat /ɑ/; keep it rounded and back.
Common errors include: (1) Misplacing stress, saying aSAUL-ted instead of ə-SAWL-tɪd; (2) Flattening the /ɔː/ to /ɑ/ or /ɒ/, yielding ah-sahlt-id; (3) Dropping the /t/ or glottalizing the /t/ in rapid speech, producing /səˈsɔːlˌɪd/ or /səˈsɒlɪd/. Corrections: keep primary stress on the second syllable, use a full /ɔː/ vowel for /sɔːl/, articulate /t/ clearly before the final /ɪd/; in rapid speech, lengthen the /ɔːl/ slightly and still release the /t/.
US: r-colored or r-less with /əˈsɔːltɪd/ depending on speaker; UK: non-rhotic ending with /əˈsɔːltɪd/ and clear /t/; AU: often a more centralized /əˈsɔːltɪd/ with slightly flatter /ɒ/ or /ɔː/ depending on region, and a softer /t/ in some dialects. In all accents the primary stress lands on the second syllable; vowel quality and final consonant release vary slightly, but the /ɔːl/ cluster remains central.
Because it combines a stressed open syllable with a tense back rounded vowel /ɔː/ followed by the /lt/ cluster and a voiceless /t/ before a final /ɪd/ or /əd/. The /l/ is liquid, the /t/ is a stop, and the /d/ can coalesce in rapid speech. The combination of /s/ + /ɔːl/ + /t/ + /ɪd/ challenges timing, differentiating /ɔːl/ from /ɒl/ in some dialects, and maintaining crisp articulation of /t/ in connected speech.
Yes. Stress remains on the second syllable, but in careful speech you want a fuller /ɔː/ vowel before /l/ and a crisp /t/ before the final /ɪd/. Some speakers voice the /d/ lightly in casual speech, yielding a suffix that sounds closer to /-tɪd/ than a fully voiced /-d/. Ensure the sequence /sɔːl/ is not reduced to /sɔl/; keep the /l/ clear and the /t/ released.
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