Word.ws English Dictionary

altered

Syllables: al·teredUK/ˈɔːl.təd//ˈɔl.tɚd/

altered is the simple past and past participle of alter.

Adjective

altered (not comparable)

  1. Having been changed from an original form.
    • Ralph suppressed the indignation which the schoolmaster’s altered and insolent manner awakened, and asked again why he had not sent to him.1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
  2. (usually a pet) Neutered; having had testicles or uterus and ovaries removed to prevent procreation.

Meaning of alter

Verb

alter (third-person singular simple present alters, present participle altering, simple past and past participle altered)

  1. (ambitransitive) To change the form or structure of.
    • Near-synonym: tweak
    Synonyms:
    tweak
  2. (intransitive) To become different.
    • […] Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul, / Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song, […]1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems
  3. (transitive) To tailor clothes to make them fit.
  4. (transitive) To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal).
  5. (transitive) To affect mentally, as by psychotropic drugs or illness.
    • We don't know if he was altered on alcohol or drugs or anything […]2016 February 10, Sydney Pruitt and Claire Ricke (quoting Jeff Barrick), "Police: Man lying in street hit, killed by Capital Metro bus", KXAN

See all 6 meanings of alter

Noun

altered (plural altereds)

  1. A kind of car in drag racing, usually with a partial body situated behind the exposed engine.

Forms of altered

pluralaltereds

Words formed from altered

Phrases with altered

Questions about altered

What does altered mean?
Altered means a kind of car in drag racing, usually with a partial body situated behind the exposed engine.
What is altered the simple past and past participle of?
Altered is the simple past and past participle of alter.
What part of speech is altered?
Altered can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce altered?
Altered is pronounced /ˈɔːl.təd/ (UK).
What is the plural of altered?
The plural of altered is altereds.

Words near altered in the dictionary

  1. altercation
  2. altercations
  3. altercative
  4. altercator
  5. altercators
  6. altered
  7. altered or changed
  8. altered scale
  9. altered scales
  10. alteredness
  11. altereds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: altered (page history and authors); alter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-altered.ogg.

Cite this entry: “altered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/altered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.