# addled

> English word · Verb · IPA /ˈæ.dəld/ · frequency rank #49,172

## Definitions
1. simple past and past participle of addle

## Etymology
From Middle English addledd, adyld, equivalent to addle (“urine, liquid filth”) + -ed. Addle derives from Old English adel, adela (“mud, mire, liquid manure”), cognate with Old Swedish adel (“urine”), Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal (“manure”). Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) “egg that does not hatch, rotten egg”, lit. “urine egg”, a calque of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous calque of Ancient Greek οὔριον ᾠόν (oúrion ōión, “putrid egg”, literally “wind egg”), from οὔριος (oúrios, “of the wind”), from οὖρος (oûros, “fair wind”) (confused by Roman writers with οὔριος (oúrios, “of urine”), from οὖρον (oûron, “urine”)). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adjective from c. 1600, meaning “putrid”.

## Easily confused with
- **aided** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/addled-vs-aided)
- **Adele** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/addled-vs-adele)
- **Adler** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/addled-vs-adler)
- **adored** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/addled-vs-adored)
- **angled** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/addled-vs-angled)
- **added** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/added-vs-addled)
- **Addie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/addie-vs-addled)
- **adder** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/adder-vs-addled)

## Common misspellings (7)
`addeld`, `addlde`, `addledd`, `addlled`, `adlded`, `adled`, `dadled`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/addled