Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell held

hear itheld/hɛld/verbRules and real life

What it means: To grasp or carry something.

In a sentence: She held her teddy bear tightly.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as helded or helld.

Same family: holding, holder, uphold, withhold, behold. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Held” is the past tense and past participle of “hold,” which comes from Old English “healdan,” meaning to keep, guard, or preserve. This ancient verb is related to words in German and Dutch that also mean to keep or maintain.

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