possessed
pos·sessed/pəˈzɛst/adjective, verb
possessed is spelled P-O-S-S-E-S-S-E-D, 2 syllables: pos·sessed. The wrong spelling people search most is posessed: about 100 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Possessed is an adjective meaning “Controlled by evil spirits”.
How many letters and syllables are in possessed?
| Letters | 9: P-O-S-S-E-S-S-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: pos·sessed |
| In writing | 7.1 times per million words; the 8,918th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, posessed, about 100 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell possessed?
Possessed is spelled P-O-S-S-E-S-S-E-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for possessed in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is possessed?
Possessed appears 7.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,918th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce possessed?
- /pəˈzɛst/
Possessed has 2 syllables, split pos·sessed in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-possessed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of possessed
- more possessed comparative
- most possessed superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does possessed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Controlled by evil spirits.
He was exorcised because he was thought to be possessed by the Devil.
- 2
Seized by powerful emotions.
- 3
Having; owning.
The president was possessed of great wealth.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of possess
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Possessed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense controlled by evil spirits:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | possédé, démoniaque, diabolique |
| German | besessen |
| Portuguese | possuído, possesso, endemoniado, endemoninhado, endiabrado |
| Spanish | poseído, poseso, endiablado, endemoniado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.